The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was a carefully constructed film that made me laugh outloud and to myself. At times I felt like I wanted to cry and by the end I didn't know what to feel. Films that make me feel like that are, in my opinion, worth watching. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly took the me on a journey through change the occurred in Jean-Dominique Bauby's life after having a stroke. That statement would not attract me to watch the film right away. But the film worked well because the point of view was from Jean-Dominique.
The choice of having a large majority of the movie filmed as if the camera were the eye of Jean-Dominique was brilliant. A few moments that were striking were when the doctor was sewing up one of Jean-Dominique's eyes.I saw this happen from the inside, as if I were seeing what it would look like to have a doctor sew my eye shut. A series of subtle, but striking moments were the times when people would stand out of Jean-Dominique's view because we would not see that person either.
Along with view, we not only saw everything from Jean-Dominique's view, but we heard everything from his view. We heard his thoughts, when other's could not. Most of the time his thoughts made me laugh because he would mock what people said to him, or say one thing in his mind and then blink the opposite answer. It was funny because people do exactly what he was doing, but we never hear people's thoughts.
At the end of the film I had so many feelings that I did not know what I felt--I felt a bit of triumph when his book was published, but I was saddened through the whole thing because he could not feel anything. I could not feel the touch of his children. He could not feel the stubble on his father's face. He could not feel the kiss of his lover.
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I think it's a typo, but it's an absolutely beautiful one, and I'd be lying if I said it didn't move me deeply. In your last paragraph, you wrote, "I could not feel the touch of his children," when I think you meant to write "He could not feel the touch of his children." But, for me, that is a wonderful claim about the power of this film. By insisting on grueling point-of-view camera work for so much of the film, the movie invites us to identify powerfully with Jean-Do, so that his feelings--at best--do become ours.
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