Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) is the editor of the popular French fashion magazine, Elle. The movie opens just as Bauby wakes up from a three-week coma brought on by a stroke. Although Bauby can see, hear and understand the doctors surrounding him, he is unable to communicate with them. His brain is awake, but the rest of his body (except for his left eye) is switched off, a condition attributed to a rare condition known as "locked-in" syndrome. With the help of a speech therapist, Bauby develops a form of communication by blinking whenever she says the letter he wishes to use. Using the long process, he decides to write a book (which eventually becomes the movie) describing his situation.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's most compelling aspect isn't that it is based on a true story, but that a majority of the movie is presented from Bauby's point-of-view. Except for a few scenes where Bauby is reflecting on his life before his coma, everything about Bauby's post-coma life is told as if the viewer was Bauby. This helps to give the movie an amazing voice since it puts you directly inside his head, allowing you to hear his frustration and struggle. (Really, if you thought the first-person sequence in Doom was an amazing feat, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly will cause your head to explode.) It also helps to make him an extremely sympathetic character, especially when taken alongside his not-so-sympathetic former life.
In order to really push the effect, the movie uses several types of camera effects, such as slow, erratic focuses or one of the film's creepiest scenes where one of Bauby's eyes is sewn shut. The scene is truly cringe-worthy, yet so expertly handled that you can't help but watch. The first-person view is so unique that you'll eventually find yourself trying to figure out how certain scenes were done, all of which are explained during the extra feature entitled "A Cinematic Vision". Another "Making of..." feature also sheds some light on the effects, as well as giving background on the movie itself. There's even an interview between the movie's director, Julian Schnabel, and Charlie Rose that reveals even more background on the film.
Unless you're the type of person who never goes for foreign films, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a must see, especially if you're interested in seeing something completely different from the norm.
