The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) Le scaphandre et le papillon (original title)

Director:

Julian Schnabel

Writers (WGA):

Ronald Harwood (screenplay)
Jean-Dominique Bauby (book)

Release Date:

23 May 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

Let your imagination set you free

Plot:

The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed.

Plot Keywords:

Eye | Paralyzed | Editor | Stroke | Blink

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 55 wins & 41 nominations

Cast

Mathieu Amalric	...	Jean-Do
Emmanuelle Seigner	...	Céline
Marie-Josée Croze	...	Henriette Roi
Anne Consigny	...	Claude
Patrick Chesnais	...	Le Docteur Lepage
Niels Arestrup	...	Roussin
Olatz López Garmendia	...	Marie Lopez
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Père Lucien et le Vendeur
Marina Hands	...	Joséphine
Max von Sydow	...	Papinou
Gérard Watkins	...	Le Docteur Cocheton
Théo Sampaio	...	Théophile
Fiorella Campanella	...	Céleste
Talina Boyaci	...	Hortense
Isaach De Bankolé	...	Laurent
Emma de Caunes	...	L'Impératrice Eugénie
Jean-Philippe Écoffey	...	Le Docteur Mercier et Nortier de Villefort
Nicolas Le Riche	...	Nijinski
Anne Alvaro	...	Betty
Françoise Lebrun	...	Madame Bauby
Zinedine Soualem	...	Joubert
Georges Roche	...	Fourneau
Agathe de La Fontaine	...	Inès
Yves-Marie Coppin	...	Le pêcheur
François Delaive	...	L'infirmier
Franck Victor	...	Paul
Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre	...	Diane (as Laure de Clermont)
Virginie Delmotte	...	L'infirmière
Daniel Lapostolle	...	Aide-soignant 1
Philippe Roux	...	Aide-soignant 2
François Filloux	...	L'infirmier de nuit
Elvis Polanski	...	Jean-Do enfant
Cedric Brelet von Sydow	...	Papinou jeune
Sara Séguéla	...	La paraplégique Lourdes
Vasile Negru	...	Le Violoniste
Marie Meyer	...	Mannequin
Ilze Bajare	...	Mannequin
Anna Chyzh	...	Mannequin
Antoine Bréant	...	Assistant Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Azzedine Alaïa	...	Himself
Michael Wincott	...	Fashion Photographer
Jean-Baptiste Mondino	...	Himself
Lenny Kravitz	...	Himself
Farida Khelfa	...	Herself

Directed by
Julian Schnabel

Writing credits (WGA)
Ronald Harwood		(screenplay)
Jean-Dominique Bauby		(book "Le scaphandre et le papillon")

Produced by
François-Xavier Decraene	....	line producer
Léonard Glowinski	....	associate producer
Pierre Grunstein	....	executive producer
Kathleen Kennedy	....	producer
Jon Kilik	....	producer
Jim Lemley	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Paul Cantelon

Cinematography by
Janusz Kaminski

Film Editing by
Juliette Welfling

Production Design by
Michel Eric
Laurent Ott

Costume Design by
Olivier Bériot

Makeup Department
Olivier Afonso	....	assistant special effects makeup artist (as Olivier Alonso)
Florence Batteault	....	makeup artist
Sandrine Cirilli	....	makeup artist
Raphael Cornillon	....	wigs (as Raphaël Cornillon)
Elizabeth Delesalle	....	makeup artist
Thierry Di Cecca	....	hair stylist
Mélanie Gerbeaux	....	wigs
Christian Gruau	....	key hair stylist
Myriam Hottois	....	key makeup artist
Benoît Lestang	....	special makeup effects artist
Laure Moulin	....	hair stylist
Geoffroy Selley	....	assistant special effects makeup artist (as Geoffroy Felley)
Chloé Van Lierde	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Virginia Anderson	....	post-production manager
David Artigala	....	assistant unit manager
Virginie Bernard	....	assistant unit manager
Olivier Billard	....	assistant unit manager
Delphine Brunet	....	assistant unit manager
Gwenael Camuzard	....	assistant unit manager
Xavier Champagnac	....	assistant unit manager
Sebastien Cosset	....	assistant unit manager
Sébastien Coulet	....	assistant unit manager
Mathieu Desouches	....	assistant unit manager
Deborah Dours	....	assistant unit manager
Stephan Guillemet	....	unit production manager
Varujan Gumusel	....	post-production supervisor
Maud Hubert	....	assistant unit manager
Olivier Jacob	....	unit manager
Emilie Larribaut-Guinguene	....	assistant unit manager
Vincent Lefeuvre	....	assistant production manager
Logan Lelièvre	....	assistant unit manager
Julien Linières	....	assistant unit manager
Anne-Claire Loridant	....	assistant unit manager
Emmanuel Mathieu	....	unit manager
Julien Minet	....	assistant unit manager
Jean-Patrick Nourricier	....	assistant unit manager
Laurent Platiau	....	assistant unit manager
David Thooris	....	assistant unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Mathilde Cavillan	....	second assistant director
Stéphane Gluck	....	first assistant director
Sébastien Marziniak	....	assistant director
Lucie Wagner	....	trainee assistant director

Art Department
Christian Gazio	....	property master
Alain Pitrel	....	set dresser
Jean-Noël Vincensini	....	assistant art director
Julien Durguel	....	props finder (uncredited)
Franck Gies	....	carpenter (uncredited)

Sound Department
Damien Bera	....	assistant sound mixer (as Damien Lazzérini)
Damien Bera	....	sound re-recording mixer
Roberto Cappannelli	....	sound re-recording mixer
Boris Chapelle	....	assistant sound editor
Toni Di Rocco	....	sound mix technician
Philippe Dongé	....	sound mix technician
Dominique Gaborieau	....	sound
Yann Lebrun	....	sound detection
Frédérique Liébaut	....	post-synchronization
Vincent Milner	....	assistant foley artist
Jean-Paul Mugel	....	sound recordist
Yves-Marie Omnes	....	boom operator
Philippe Penot	....	foley artist
Cyrille Richard	....	dialogue editor
Francis Wargnier	....	sound editor

Special Effects by
Olivier Afonso	....	special effects makeup
Philippe Alleton	....	special effects
Jean-Claude Dauphinot	....	special effects
Georges Demétrau	....	special effects supervisor
Clive R. Kay	....	special effects contact lenses
Jérome Miel	....	special effects

Visual Effects by
Lech Anita	....	digital effects artist
Luc Augereau	....	visual effects producer
Yann Blondel	....	senior visual effects supervisor
Adrien Borzakian	....	digital artist
Arnaud Damez	....	digital artist
Jacques Delzescaux	....	digital artist
Anita Lech	....	digital artist (as Anita Lech Bedez)
Elodie Ly Tri	....	retouch and restoration
Charlotte Quemy	....	retouch and restoration
Fred Roz	....	titles
Laurence Vidot	....	visual effects coordinator
Aurélie Villard	....	digital artist

Stunts
Pascal Guégan	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
François Amadei	....	electrician
Damien Auriol	....	grip
Jérôme Baudouin	....	electrician (as Jérôme Baudoin)
Berto	....	camera operator
Sébastien Courtain	....	electrician
Adrien Debackere	....	second assistant camera
Pascal Delaunay	....	grip
Olivier Fortin	....	focus puller
Jan Gagnaire	....	grip
Germain Garziano	....	trainee grip
Antonin Gendre	....	key grip
Etienne George	....	still photographer
Alexandre Gotkovski	....	electrician
Yann Grelot	....	grip
Geoffroy Hassoun	....	grip
Damien Jousselin	....	electrician
Mikael Monod	....	gaffer
Pascal Morisset	....	cinematographer: underwater sequences
Benoît Pain	....	second assistant camera
Ludovic Petit	....	electrician
Steeven Petitteville	....	first assistant camera
Michel Revest	....	cinematographer: underwater sequences
Alexandre Ricco	....	grip
Roland Savoye	....	cinematographer: underwater sequences
Vincent Tulasne	....	video assist operator
François-Xavier Walter	....	grip
Jörg Widmer	....	Steadicam operator

Casting Department
Rachel Desmarest	....	casting assistant (as Rachel Berger)
Sana El Ghoul	....	casting assistant
Jérôme Sacerdot	....	extras casting assistant
Laurent Soulet	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Alexia Crisp-Jones	....	wardrobe
Camille Janbon	....	assistant costume designer
Camille Joste	....	costumer
Lucia Lefebvre	....	on-set costumer
Sylvie Néant	....	on-set costumer
Daniella Telle	....	costumer

Editorial Department
Christian Dutac	....	color timer: LTC
Marcela Figueroa	....	assistant editor
Marie-Pierre Frappier	....	assistant editor
Margot Meynier	....	assistant editor
Nelly Ollivault	....	assistant editor
Carlos Pinto	....	second assistant editor
Gilles Granier	....	dailies color grader (uncredited)

Music Department
Christian Chevalier	....	music clearance
Julian Schnabel	....	music supervisor

Transportation Department
Arnaud Bisselbach	....	driver
Hélène Millet	....	driver

Other crew
Hiam Abbass	....	acting coach
Edith Barrier	....	production administrator
Virginie Bernard	....	production assistant
Catherine Brelet	....	personal assistant: Mr. Max Von Sydow (as Catherine Brelet-Von Sydow)
Bernard Caroff	....	groupman
David Caroff	....	groupman
Sylvie Coen	....	general counsel
Maguy J.B. Cohen	....	personal assistant: Mr. Schnabel (as Maguy Cohen)
Sean Cooney	....	post-prodution executive
Amélie Dibon	....	production secretary
Marion Gervais	....	coach: children
Claudy Gibier	....	groupman
Marie Guillon	....	production administrator
Elyse Klaits	....	associate: Ms. Kennedy
George Pank	....	business affairs: Pathe
Bianca Turetsky	....	personal assistant: Mr. Schnabel
Wolfgang W. Werner	....	press agent
Linda A. Borgeson	....	executive in charge of post production (uncredited)

Thanks
Laurie Anderson	....	special thanks
Kathleen Brennan	....	special thanks
Naomi Campbell	....	special thanks
Jean-Pierre Cassel	....	dedicatee
Ferdinand Chesnais	....	dedicatee
Aurelio De Laurentiis	....	special thanks
Raffaella De Laurentiis	....	special thanks
Linda Evangelista	....	special thanks
Laird John Hamilton	....	special thanks (as Laird Hamilton)
Dennis Hopper	....	special thanks
François Ivernel	....	special thanks
Mike Medavoy	....	special thanks
Luce Mellor	....	special thanks
Tatjana Patitz	....	special thanks
Roman Polanski	....	special thanks
Lou Reed	....	special thanks
Jack Schnabel	....	dedicatee
Batan Silva	....	special thanks (as Sebastián Silva)
Joe Strummer	....	special thanks
U2	....	special thanks
Tom Waits	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Pathé Renn Productions
• France 3 Cinéma (co-production)
• Kennedy/Marshall Company, The (in association with)
• C.R.R.A.V. Nord Pas de Calais (support)
• Région Nord-Pas-de-Calais (support)
• Canal+ (participation)
• CinéCinéma (participation)
• Banque Populaire Images 7 (in association with)

Distributors

• Alternative Films (2007) (Belgium) (theatrical)
• Pathe (2007) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Prokino Filmverleih (2007) (Germany) (theatrical)
• A-Film Distribution (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Alfa Films (2008) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Asmik Ace Entertainment (2008) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Festive Films (2008) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Golden Village Entertainment (2008) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Miramax Films (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Pathé (2007) (France) (theatrical)
• Scanbox Entertainment (2008) (Finland) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Audio Visual Entertainment (2007) (Greece) (all media)
• Cinema Without Frontiers (2008) (Russia) (all media)
• Deltamac Entertainment (2007) (Hong Kong) (all media)
• Echo Bridge Home Entertainment (2011) (USA) (DVD)
• Prokino Filmverleih (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Transeuropa Video Entertainment (TVE) (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep (VPRO) (2010) (Netherlands) (TV)

Other Companies

• Creative Artists Agency (CAA)  filmmakers representation
• Dolby Laboratories  sound post-production

Also Known As:

"Le scaphandre et le papillon" - France (original title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for nudity, sexual content and some language

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

France | USA

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Ireland:12A | Canada:PG | Netherlands:6 | Taiwan:PG-12 | Sweden:7 | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-7 | South Korea:12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #43714) | Hong Kong:IIB | Greece:K-13 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | UK:12 | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/16 | Germany:12 (f)

Filming Locations:

France

Company:

Pathé Renn Productions

Trivia:

Almost the entire opening 40 minutes of the film are taken from Bauby's point of view.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Jean-Dominique goes on a boat ride, a 'Speedferries' vessel can be seen in the background. Speedferries started business in 2004, years after the movie was set.

Quotes:

Dr. Lepage:We want you to take it easy for a few days.
Jean-Dominique Bauby:What do you think I'm doing now?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir (2011)

Soundtrack:

Happy Birthday to You

A film of enormous power

Though not paralyzed from head to toe like French fashion magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, many of us are in the "locked-in" syndrome – locked into our resentments and our fears, a rigidity that sours us on life and keep us estranged from family and friends. Julian Schnabel's masterful The Diving Bell and the Butterfly allows us to better appreciate the simple pleasures in life by dramatizing the debilitating trauma faced by the 43-year old editor who suffered a massive stroke that left him unable to speak or to move his head and whose only means of communication was to blink one eye – one blink for yes, two blinks for no.

Beautifully shot by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski with a screenplay by Ronald Harwood, the film begins with Bauby's confused awakening in the hospital after twenty days in a coma. We see only a blur of images and claustrophobic close-ups that mirror the patient's mental state. We can make out a hospital room and doctors and nurses offering reassuring thoughts. We hear Bauby's words but the doctors do not and we know that while his body isn't functioning, his mind is as sharp as ever. With the help of a speech therapist (Marie-Josée Croze), and a very patient transcriber, a code is developed that allows Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), called Jean-Do by his friends and family, to compose a book based on his experience.

When the therapist recites the most-frequently used letters in the French alphabet, Bauby blinks when he wants to choose a letter. The book, on which the film is based, was published in 1997, shortly after Bauby's death. One of the most dramatic moments in the film occurs near the beginning when the first thought Jean-Do communicates is that he wants to die. Feeling rejected and angry, the therapist stomps out of the room but apologizes and comes back shortly to resume the treatment. We do not actually see Jean-Do until about a third of the way through the film but we can hear his thoughts which are in turn angry, funny, and bitterly ironic. Bauby compares his body to a deep-sea diver being suffocated in a diving suit and his poetic imagination to a butterfly.

It is Jean-Do's sense of humor that keeps the film as light as it can be under the circumstances and his eloquence that keeps us riveted. When we finally do see him with his immobile body and his drooping lower lip, it is still a shock but we smile when he says that "I look like I came out of a vat of formaldehyde." Much of the film vividly explores the editor's imagination and the camera takes us on some wild rides that include images of Nijinsky, Empress Eugénie, Marlon Brando, and Jean-Do in his imagination skiing and surfing. Some of the most emotional moments occur when he greets his young children at the beach for the first time after his stroke, a telephone "conversation" with his 92-year old father (Max Von Sydow), and flashbacks to his youth - driving with his girlfriend, shaving his father, supervising a fashion shoot, and taking his son on a trip in a new sports car. Bauby's wife Céline (Emmanuelle Seigner), whom he left for exotic girlfriend Ines (Agathe de La Fontaine), visits him in the hospital and comforts him while Ines cannot bring herself to see him, saying that she wants to remember him the way he was.

Realizing how his life had been less than exemplary, his stroke becomes an opportunity for redemption and allows him, if not to cleanse his soul, to discover that humanity lies in his consciousness not in material things or sexuality. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a film of enormous power that shakes us and enables us to get in touch with the miracle of each moment. Schnabel says that his purpose in making the film was to tell "the story of all of us, who surely do face death and sickness. But if we look", he says, "we can find meaning and beauty here." There is enough of both meaning and beauty to make The Diving Bell and the Butterfly one of the best films of the year.