Review of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) by Nadeem M — 16 May 2010

This is an astonishing movie about a successful editor, Jean Do of Elle Magazine who has it all in life: money, women, fame. One day as he is driving his Jaguar, he falls victim to a mysterious disease "locked in Syndrome" that leaves him paralysed for the rest of his life from head to toe. The only thing he can move is his left eye which he uses and learns to communicate with the rest of the world with.

The concept of the movie is a piece of genius. Filmed mostly from a claustrophobic perspective of the left eye of the Jean Do, it is a first person narration of his voice which only he can hear. The movie compromises partly of the painful present, where he draws inspiration from the idea of writing an auto biography by dictating his thoughts to his nurse and uses his eye flicks to communicate.

The other part of the movie, are flashbacks of his past life.

Watching this movie is a rich experience, mesmerizing, haunting, clever & witty, it had a devastating affect on me and making me introspective on my own life towards the end. The best part of the movie is the amazing script based on his autobiography itself. Here is a terrific quote:

"The memory of that event has only just come back to me, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities. The women we were unable to love, the chances we failed to seize, the moments of happiness we allowed to drift away. Today it seems to me that my whole life was nothing but a string of those small near misses: a race whose result we know beforehand but in which we fail to bet on the winner.".

ENJOY!!