Review of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) by Pontos C — 30 Jun 2009

This movie is a thoroughly haunting and unsettling experience. This is essentially an incredibly stylistically ambitious film that attempts to not only tell the story, but also give you an idea of the experience of being completely paralyzed by a stroke.

Again, I find myself incapable of separating this film from my personal context. Almost 2 years ago now, my sister suffered a massive stroke. We thought she was going to die. I was further away than any other family member so when I started on my trip up to see her, I thought I was going up to go to a funeral. By the time I got up there, the threat of death was gone, so everyone was actually quite relieved and almost happy. But when I got to see my sister, she couldn't speak, half of her face was sagging horribly from the stroke, and she couldn't even successfully watch TV because she couldn't turn her head. So while everyone else was happy she wasn't dead, I was horrified at her state of living. She has since recovered a great deal of her mobility and some ability to speak, but it has been a long, hard road for her.

For pretty much the whole time since my sister's stroke, I think I've been asking myself what it must be like to be my sister having to face all of these impossible hardships and being trapped inside her own body. I don't think I'll ever really know, but I think The Diving Bell and The Butterfly puts me a little bit closer to understanding my sister's experience in an emotional way.

Although I knew the movie was about a stroke victim who was paralyzed, I wasn't prepared at all for how strongly the film's point of view was tied to the perspective of the paralyzed man, trapped in his own body. I'd say a pretty strong majority of it is literally shot from the perspective of his one blinking eye, and most of the rest of the movie is made up of brief memories or dream sequences in his head. It seems like a limiting stylistic concept, but the truth of it is that once the filmmakers embrace that stylistic concept, it enables them to create some of the most beautifully captured and haunting images I've ever seen on film. And that reflects the central idea of the film, which I believe is essentially the old cliched platitude, "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.".

But while the sentiment at the center of the film may perhaps be a bit cliched, there's nothing else about the film that is. And the film is not nearly as sunny as that platitude would suggest. I'd say in general that the film avoids making any real messages in favor of trying to convey an experience. The frustrating nature of the camera's perspective never quite looking at what we want to look at works to approximate the character's experience, and it feels very purposeful. And while it paints the experience as horrible and harrowing, the movie never makes the man into a saint, and that makes it feel all the more real. He can be mean and petty and spiteful. But his situation is so unthinkable that it doesn't matter who he is, he has our sympathy.

The movie is not easy to watch by any stretch of the imagination. For me, the biggest benefit that I found was seeing a perspective that made me understand my sister's experience better. But it's not a fun perspective to be in by any means. Of course my wife pointed out another way to enjoy the film, which I had not considered. After watching the film, and seeing all the troubles this character has to deal with, when you leave the film and go back to your own life, all of your troubles will pretty much seem insignificant by comparison.