The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Scaphandre et le papillon, Le) (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Director - Julian Schnabel Featurette-Making Of-Submerged: The Making of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly Featurette-Making Of-Cinematic Vision Theatrical Trailer-Paris Theatrical Trailer-La Vie En Rose
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	107:14
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Julian Schnabel
Studio Distributor	Pathe! Icon Entertainment	Starring	Mathieu Amalric Emmanuelle Seigner Marie-Josée Croze Anne Consigny Patrick Chesnais Niels Arestrup Olatz López Garmendia Jean-Pierre Cassel Marina Hands
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	Paul Cantelon

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

"Other than my eye, two things aren't paralysed. My imagination...and my memory. They're the only two ways I can escape from my diving bell." Jean-Dominique Bauby.

Imagine for a moment that you are trapped inside a lifeless body. Imagine having complete mental awareness, but no ability to speak or to move your body. Imagine living this way day in and day out for the rest of your life. This rare condition, known as "locked-in syndrome" formed the central theme of Dalton Trumbo's 1971 film, Johnny Got His Gun. Trumbo's film centred on a young man left totally incapacitated by the horrors of war. Trumbo brought life to his essentially lifeless character by switching the narrative between the present, the past and through his dreams. Julian Schnabel used similar methods in 2007 to bring to the screen the real-life story of Jean-Dominique Bauby. In doing so, he created a film that is as moving and inspirational as anything you're likely to see - that film is the multi-award winning, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon).

For those unfamiliar with the life of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Jean-Do), in 1991 he became the editor-in-chief of the respected French fashion magazine, Elle. He was a loving father of two young children (three in the film) and led a hectic, but contented life in Paris. At the relatively young age of 42, Jean-Do's life was dealt the cruellest of blows. On December 8th, 1995, he suffered a massive stroke and awoke from a coma some twenty days later to discover that he was almost totally paralysed. Although he could still hear and see, he could not speak or move any part of his body, except for his left eye. He was locked inside his shell of a body, with no means of expression. But, from these seemingly impossible restraints, Jean-Do would eventually write his memoirs.

Schnabel's film was adapted by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) from Jean-Do's memoirs, which obviously form the main theme of this film. At first, Harwood thought the novel was impossible to film and almost gave up trying. He then discovered the right perspective to work from - inside the head of Jean-Dominique Bauby. Director, Julian Schnabel embraced the concept perfectly and has delivered a stunning film.

Particularly during the early scenes of the film, the audience is placed firmly inside Jean-Do's world. We see everything from his perspective, his impaired focus, his initial sensitivity to light, his limited field of vision, even the sewing up of his right eyelid. The audience is also privy to Jean-Do's thoughts and emotions through his inner voice.

With the realisation of his fate, Jean-Do (beautifully played by Mathieu Amairic) found it difficult to remain optimistic. His depression eased slightly though when two very attractive female therapists were assigned to assist him in achieving the best possible standard of living. The fact that his body was non-responsive certainly didn't hinder his active male mind.

His speech therapist, Henriette (Marie-Josée Croze) provided Jean-Do with the means to communicate. Using an alphabet system, she recited letters to which he would blink when she spoke the right letter. Patiently she converted letters into words and words into sentences. In time, they streamlined their method and the process became a little quicker. However, it was still laborious and patience was required to conduct a general conversation. But the system gave Jean-Dominique Bauby the ability to talk to his family and friends, forming a vital connection with the "outside" world.

His estranged partner and the mother of his children, Céline (Emmanuelle Seigner) tried to bring some normality to his life by providing constant love and support. She arranged regular visits with the children and would often read to him the many letters of support he received. Her dedication toward him haunted Jean-Do somewhat, because he had treated her poorly in times gone by. This was further compounded by the fact that his current girlfriend, Inès (Agathe de La Fontaine) hadn't been able to draw the emotional strength to visit him in hospital.

Before the stroke, Jean-Do had a contract with a publisher to write a book. He had originally planned to write a modern adaptation of The Count Of Monte Cristo, but this was now beyond him. However, in an effort to prove to people that he was still capable of some achievement, he decided to honour the contract by writing his memoirs. The publisher sent an assistant to take Jean-Do's tedious dictation. Claude (Anne Consigny) provided him with the patient ability to express his thoughts onto paper and in time they developed a close relationship of trust and respect. Jean-Dominique Bauby's collection of memories, emotions and dreams would later become the best selling novel, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.

The film conveys Jean-Do's life in the present, the past and through the dreams that enabled him to escape his torturous existence. Cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski creates a sublime juxtaposition of a cruel and distorted world with the beautiful imagery of Jean-Do's imagination. While some scenes are profoundly moving, the film is never morbid and has many genuinely funny moments. Performances from the entire cast are simply brilliant - this film would have collapsed with anything less. It's worth noting that veteran actor, Max von Sydow plays the small role of Jean-Do's father and delivers one of the finest moments in the film.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is superb filmmaking in every aspect and a true celebration of the human spirit. It is without any doubt, one of the best films I've seen in recent years.

Video

In general terms, this transfer is really quite good and delivers an excellent degree of sharpness. It's important not to confuse any of the cinematography tricks with transfer issues. Many scenes in this film display a deliberately distorted view of the world. Blacks were clean and noise free. Shadow detail was excellent throughout the film.

Colours were well balanced, with absolutely no saturation issues.

There were no MPEG artefacts in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts were well controlled and didn't present with anything significant. Film artefacts were basically non-existent.

The only available subtitles are English and they are burned into the print. They are easily legible in pale yellow and appear to be exactly the same as those on cinema prints of the film.

This is a DVD9 disc. The layer change is perfectly placed at 70:45 and was very difficult to find without using software.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

There are three audio tracks on the DVD, French Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and French Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) and English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s).

Although my comprehension of the French language is limited, the dialogue sounded clear and concise.

There were no apparent problems with audio sync.

The original music used in the film is credited to Paul Cantelon. His piano music blends perfectly with the film and adds significantly on an emotional level. Plenty of non-original music from a cross section of artists has also been nicely incorporated into the film. Some of these artists include, Tom Waits, U2, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros and The Velvet Underground.

Initially, I wasn't expecting too much from the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Because The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is a drama and is mainly dialogue driven, I expected a very basic mix. I have to say, my expectations were way off the mark - this is a very intelligent audio mix. During appropriate scenes, Jean-Dominique Bauby's inner dialogue comes through the rear channels, which further enhances the viewer's perspective of his isolation. The surround channels were also used to great effect throughout the film with ambient sound, such as hospital noise and beach sounds. The first instance of hospital noise occurs as early as 1:42 with the opening scene of the film.

As you might expect, the subwoofer is used only minimally.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

The main menu is 16x9 enhanced, subtly animated and features a sample of Paul Cantelon's music from the film.

Director's Commentary - Julian Schnabel

Not the most lively of commentaries, but still very informative. Julian tends to let the film play and interrupts only when he has something to add about a scene or a performance. There may be a few gaps of silence here and there, but overall his commentary offers good insight into most aspects of the production.

Featurette - Submerged: The Making of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly (12:36)

This short, but fascinating piece features interviews with many cast and crew members. It also has some behind-the-scenes footage and generally provides good information about the making of the film. I would guess however that this is only a slice of a longer "making of" documentary that is possibly waiting for a two-disc set or Blu-ray release.

Featurette - Cinematic Vision (7:09)

This short piece was obviously cut from the above featurette, only this time it concentrates solely on the cinematography of the film. Again, I think this is only a small segment of a longer documentary, but it's still an interesting and worthy inclusion.

Trailer - Paris (2:45)

Trailer - La Vie En Rose (0:47)

I will compare this R4 edition of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly with the R1 edition released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in April 2008.

Apart from the original French audio track, the R1 edition also has dubbed English and Spanish audio tracks - all are reportedly Dolby 5.1 mixes. It also features the additional subtitles of English for the hearing impaired, Spanish and French. The extras are identical on both editions, but the R1 version sports the addition of "Charlie Rose interviews Julian Schnabel" (20:44).

All in all, the R1 edition probably edges out the R4 in terms of overall presentation.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is definitely one of the best films of recent years. My hope that I would enjoy the film as much on DVD as I did in the cinema has been well and truly fulfilled. If you haven't yet experienced this film, then you simply must.

The video and audio transfers are both excellent.

Even though they aren't in abundance, the selection of extras offers good insight into the production of the film.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall