The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon, 2007) is a French biographical drama directed by Julian Schnabel — watch online on iFILM. In December 1995, Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French Elle, suffered a catastrophic stroke at 43. He survived with full cognitive function and a single working muscle: his left eyelid.

Matthieu Amalric plays Bauby almost entirely from behind his eyes. Cinematographer Janusz Kamiński shoots in first-person for long stretches — the camera blinks, drifts, focuses and fades. Speech therapist Henriette (Marie-Josée Croze) reads out the alphabet letter by letter; Bauby blinks at the right one. That is how he dictated an entire memoir. The book was published in March 1997; he died two days later.

Schnabel picked up the Best Director prize at Cannes, and the film landed four Oscar nominations, including directing and adapted screenplay. What makes it land isn't the disability — it's the absolute refusal to stop thinking. Stream The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) on iFILM.