The Divingbell and the Butterfly is a move based on the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a man who uppon waking from a stroke finds that he fully paralized with one exception-- he can blink.
Eventually he and a speach therapist work out a system of communication. She recites the alphabet. He blinks when she says the right letter. Part of the story focuses on how slow this sytem is. To write the book, he and an assistant work for hours every day just to compose a single page.
This isn't a movie with a profound ending where everyone learns to live for the moment because tomorrow you may die. Bauby chooses to not feel pity for himself.
The movie and the book are different beasts. The book is all bauby's words. In the movie, the director can add the perspective of others, how Bauby's woman chasing hurt those around him. How others react to him.
I enjoyed both the movie and the book.
What is there to say about this movie? Is it life affirming? Is it a sad story? Is it a story of a man concering adversity? I wanted it because I have questions that I am trying to answer. "Why are we happy?" and "How do different people find happieness." This movie is an extream example of somene finding happiness despite being in the most horrid of situations. It's as if we control how we feel.
Yet, if we control how we feel, then why achive anything? Why shouldn't I dedicate my life to being a care free, pennyless happy hobo?
These questions quickly desolve into a vat of hypotheticals.
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