Movement in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

I woke up and opened my eyes. Everything was swirling together and I couldn’t focus. People were peering into my face. When I talked nobody heard me.

When The Diving Bell and the Butterfly began I saw what Jean-Dominique saw, which helped me better understand his situation. The camera movements in the opening scenes allowed me to feel like I was Jean-Dominique.

When the film started, the camera did not move a whole lot—because the camera was in essence, Jean-Dominique’s head, which was paralyzed. However, I thought the camera was moving because so much going on. Then I realized the movement was from the doctors and nurses in the room, not camera movement. When the doctor asked Jean-Dominique to follow his finger, we only see the finger when it comes in range of the camera lens.

After Jean-Dominique started to get accustomed to his new body, there were more tilts and pan shots. These shots are used to show point of view of a character, and they worked wonderfully to show the eye movement that Jean-Dominique had. These shots moved Jean-Dominique's head up and down and side to side, just as much as his eye would be able to.

Later in the film we were able to see everything that surrounds Jean-Dominique and we even get to see him out of his body, but the small amount of camera movement in the beginning was extremely effective. We, as the audience, are able to get into Jean-Dominique’s character because the use of movement set the stage for Jean-Dominique’s point-of-view.