The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Marie-Josee Croze, Anne Consigny

Director: Julian Schnabel

Category: IIB

The first half of the title of Julian Schnabel's film alludes to what the medical profession calls the 'locked-in syndrome' - when paralysis of the body causes a mentally sound individual to lose communication with the outside world. And the American artist-cum-filmmaker has no qualms about forcing his audience into that diving bell: his film begins with a long sequence shot from the point of view of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby as he awakens from a stroke-induced coma to realises he's completely cut off.

As a device to conjure empathy, Schnabel's trick is unbeatable, with Bauby (represented only by his voice) trying desperately to make sense of his predicament - a claustrophobic perspective the audience is forced to share as doctors, nurses, family and friends speak to the camera and Bauby struggles to articulate his thoughts in return. What makes The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is how this opening gambit is just the start of a visually inventive, emotionally poignant and refreshingly solid film.

Schnabel has strong material to back him up; the film is an adaptation of Bauby's memoirs: humorous and self-pity-free prose that he wrote, dictating letter by letter through the use of his eyelid, the only part of his body he could still move at will. It's a process Schnabel brings into focus with much joviality, and it's why he succeeds in recalling Bauby's locked-in life (with a great turn from Mathieu Amalric), portraying his stumbling despair as he's helped by his therapist (Marie-Josee Croze) and dictation-taker (Anne Consigny).