Diving into existence

Imagine that for the rest of your life your only means of communication was through blinking one eye. No mobility, no physical capabilities, no control over any part of your body except a sole eyelid. For Jean-Dominique Bauby, former editor of the French magazine Elle, that was his reality. \nIt is remarkable and a testament to his perseverance that the real life Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) was able to compose his autobiography, on which the film is based. With vividly colorful cinematography and artistic direction, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" paints a portrait of the starkness of the human condition.\nThe film's title is outwardly visual yet metaphorically contradictory. After a stroke leaves him almost entirely paralyzed, a victim of "locked-in syndrome," Bauby refers to his incapacitated body as a diving bell, while his mind, consisting only of powerful imagination and memories, is like a butterfly that can set him free. By way of Bauby's vivid imagination, complete with sexual fantasies and flashbacks, we see how he gets through each day.\nFirst-person camera shots create the movie's most stunning visuals. Initially, and then for a majority of the film, we see Bauby's life directly through his eye. While he cannot respond to visitors, we hear his echoing thoughts as if he were actually speaking. And for a man who has endured the worst imaginable circumstances, he manages to keep a sense of humor.\nSimilar to the way Daniel Day-Lewis communicates with his only mobile appendage in "My Left Foot," Bauby learns to communicate letter by letter through blinking, Amalric's subtle performance leaves Jean-Dominique Bauby something of a mystery. We learn about his pre-stroke past only through brief flashbacks, which depict a morally ambiguous character. This leaves the question for the viewer to decide: Is paralysis Bauby's justice, or do terrible things happen at random?\nSuperficially, "The Diving Bell" is the story of a man who had everything and was reduced to nothing. But beneath it, the film depicts the sheer power of the mind. The film leaves us with gaping questions of what makes us conscious and what makes us alive.