“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” directed by 2007 Golden Globe winner for Best Director, Julian Schnabel, begins as if the audience is seeing everything though the eyes of former Elle editor, Jean- Dominique Bauby. Since it opens with Bauby awakening from a three week coma, the filming is less than smooth. The guardedly excited faces of doctors and nurses fly across the screen, closely followed by shaky images of the white-walled room. Within minutes, the immediate situation becomes clear: Bauby, played by Mathieu Amalric, is speaking only in his head, and while the audience can hear every word, the doctors can hear nothing.

This celebrated foreign film is based on Bauby’s autobiography of the same name. At 43, at the height of his popularity and success as the editor of the highly revered Elle magazine, he suffered from a stroke that left him with “locked-in syndrome,” a rare condition where his body is completely paralyzed, but his mind works the same as it did before. The only way Bauby can communicate with anyone is using his left eyelid- the only part of his body that is not paralyzed. He composes his autobiography the same way he has conversations with people: whoever is translating recites the alphabet until he blinks one time on the letter he wants. The duo would keep this up for word after word, sentence after sentence, page after grueling page.

The film was released in November and won several awards including Best Foreign Language Film from both the 2007 Phoenix Film Critics and 2007 Kansas City Film Critics. It was nominated for four Academy Awards.

The film is full of riveting metaphors. For example, during particularly desperate times for Bauby, the movie flashes to murky, underwater scenes. At first the purpose in unclear, yet slowly the full image is revealed: under what could be miles of unrelenting ocean, a diving bell floats hopelessly in the unfriendly waters. For a second, the audience can see the nearly lifeless face of Bauby trapped within the suit. He later reveals that imagination and memory are the only two things that allow him to escape from the cage that his condition confines him to, much as a butterfly travels the sky in freedom.

Amalric did a stunning job playing Bauby. A wealth of feeling was conveyed through his narration and the use of that single eyelid. Also phenomenal was supporting actress Emmanuelle Seigner who played Celine, the devoted mother of his three children. Because of Bauby’s ambiguous morality, the viewer often sympathizes with Celine. In one particularly intense and tearful scene, Bauby’s lover calls and Celine is forced to translate for him.

Despite the beautifully artistic filming and a compelling story, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” doesn’t force viewers to appreciate the movie in the same way that action-packed, flashy, highly Americanized productions do. The choice to love it or hate it is as subtle as the themes of human courage and perseverance weaving themselves elegantly across the screen of this masterpiece.

Best advice in the movie:

“Hold on to the human inside of you, and you will survive.”