The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Reviewed by:
Pete Hammond

Some stories are just so incredible they seem like even a Hollywood screenwriter could not make them up. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, based on the autobiography of the same name, is the 100 percent true story of a wildly successful magazine editor (an unforgettable Mathieu Amalric) who at age 42 suddenly suffers a massive stroke that not only lands him virtually comatose in a hospital bed but clearly should have killed him. Unable to communicate with anything other than his right eyelid, he manages to create a brand-new kind of sign language with a nurse (Marie-Josée Croze), who, with the assistance of others including the estranged mother of his two children (a heartbreakingly good Emmanuelle Seigner), helps him over the course of 14 months to write a book—one letter at a time—based on his experience as a stroke victim who is left only with a fertile mind. In flashbacks we learn more details of his life as a father, a son, a lover (yes, he has a mistress on the side as well), and a successful journalist. Particularly compelling are two scenes involving his 90-year-old father, played by the great Max Von Sydow in a career milestone. Diving Bell is shot in French, but produced and directed by Americans and written by an Englishman. The cinematography is perhaps the most artistically challenging of any movie this year. This movie is a remarkable achievement in every way, perhaps the most inspiring film in many years. It's an amazing story of human courage and commitment, told with dazzling style (by director Julian Schnabel) and cinematic imagination to burn. Tough to watch? Sure. Worth it? Absolutely.