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The Review - AT THE MOVIES with WILLIAM HALL
Published: 7 February 2008

Max Von Sydow and Mathieu Amalric in Diving Bell

The Diving Bell has real depth

THE DIVING BELL
Directed by JULIAN SCHNABEL
Certificate 12a

THE title, of course, means absolutely nothing when you walk into the cinema, but when you leave 111 minutes later it means absolutely everything.
So what’s it all about?
Based on the book of the same name, Le Scaphandre et le Pappillon, by former editor of Elle magazine Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), this is the extraordinary true story of how he suffers a stroke at the height of his career which renders him totally paralysed – apart from being able to blink his left eye, Bauby’s last window on the world.
Incarcerated in a hospital near Calais for more than a year, he determines to beat his terrible condition by writing a novel about it. Guided by a sympathetic and intuitive speech therapist (Marie-Josee Croze) they devise a unique alphabet of oft-used letters which she patiently reads out at his bedside. One blink of his eye means yes, two blinks mean no. She writes it all down with agonising slowness – but eventually a book takes shape.
The result is a spell-binding exploration of human courage, fortitude and the search for personal truth. The victim, unable to move a muscle, feels his whole body is “encased in a diving chamber”, while his imagination – “the butterfly” – soars unfettered wherever he chooses to direct it.
The early scenes in particular carry a shattering impact.
Bauby’s hospital room is seen through that single eye like a periscope searching the horizon as the awful inevitability sinks in.
When he weeps, as he does occasionally when his spirit breaks, the screen blurs over in scenes that will tear at your heart strings.
The final irony is that the book was published in 1997 – and its author died of pneumonia 10 days later. At least he saw his labour of love completed.
This is a terrific week for movies, with all three films reviewed here in Oscar contention in one category or another. Hurry out and join the queues!

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