The Man Who Speaks in Silence

OVERALL LOOK:

This film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" strives to be a motion picture adaptation of a man who authored his own experience as a captive of locked-in syndrome after suffering a stroke. The depiction of Jean-Dominique Bauby's personal experience through the use first-person point of view, visually oblique perspective and relatively long takes serves as a method of engrossing the viewer into the very personal and arduous process of learning to communicate effectively enough to write a book without speaking.

Jean-Do's perspective

IMAGES:

Although most of the moving pictures of this film follow along with the Jean-Do's narration of an event-by-event account of his learning and acceptance process, sometimes there are images in the film that denote an accompanying meaning to the literal story being told. For instance, the recurring scene of Jean-Dominique submerged in water, restricted in movement by the diving bell, symbolizes his drowning desperation. 

Image of drowning desperation

Sometimes uplifting the overwhelming world under the diving bell, the themes of hope and inspiration are represented by the use of pictures and scenes that constantly remind us of Jean-Dominique's full life as a father and editor of Elle Magazine. 

Inspiration in Family

SHOT LENGTHS:

In an attempt to give the viewer a sense of the patience it took to learn to communicate by spelling out every word with the dictation of the frequency-ordered alphabet, lengthy shots of the process were incorporated into the film and served to show Jean-Do's progress as the shots became progressively shorter.

"uh, ess, ah, air, ee..."

SHOT TYPES:

Extreme close-ups were constantly used in this film with the intention of providing the viewer an up-close and personal account of Jean-Do's life. When any person in the film invaded Jean-Dominique's personal space, as a necessity mostly, we can feel the uneasiness of his helplessness because the characters are fairly large within the frame.  

ECU = invasion, powerless

Extreme long shots are in turn used to highlight the thoughts Jean does have control over, like when he pictures vast landscapes to insert himself in a pleasant openness. 

ELS = control, freedom

CAMERA ANGLES:

Most of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is filmed in an an oblique angle, also known as dutch angle, so that the viewer sees the life of Jean through his personal physically skewed point of view. In addition to being skewed, Jean-Do's perspective is represented through the use of low-angle, especially when he encounters those in his life not trained to meet his eye level.

Looking up at Celine

The only scene where we "look up" at Jean-Do Bauby is when he reminisces about his life as the editor of Elle.

Successful editor of Elle Magazine

COMPOSITION:

Scenes in this film depict the life of a paralyzed man with no control of barely anything but his left eye, and because he does not have the power to position himself to see the world in symmetry and balance, neither does the viewer of his story. The rule of thirds is generally ignored, and instead shots with characters' heads cut off the frame are recorded in the film.

Jean-Dominique's range of vision

CAMERA MOVEMENT:

Especially at the beginning, the camera moves a lot during this film because the world of Jean Dominique causes him confusion and he must pay close attention to everything in his narrow line of vision which results in jerky movement of his one good eye. 

Jean-Do can only move one eye to communicate with doctors

CINEMATOGRAPHY STYLE:

The film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" truly expresses itself most effectively through the use of cinematographic elements that very clearly represent Jean-Dominique's point-of-view. The film's focus on presenting to the viewer a first-person account of the anguish and degree of self-pondering experienced by Bauby's locked-in syndrome is poetically executed through cinematographer Janusz Kaminski's language as described above.