THE DIVING-BELL
AND THE BUTTERFLY
aka LE SCAPHANDRE ET LE PAPILLON

Year: 2007
USA: Miramax Films
UK: Pathe Distribution
Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josee Croze, Anne Consigny, Patrick Chesnais, Niels Arestrup, Olatz Lopez Garmendia, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Marina Hands, Max Von Sydow, Isaach de Bankole, Emma de Caunes, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Gerard Watkins, Nicolas Le Riche, François Delaive, Anne Alvaro, Françoise Lebrun, Zinedine Soualem, Agathe de la Fontaine, Franck Victor, Laure de Clermont, Theo Sampaio, Fiorella Campanella
Director: Julian Schnabel
Countries: France / USA
Language: French (English subtitles)
USA: 114 mins
UK: 112 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for nudity, sexual content and some language
UK Certificate: 12A contains sexualised nudity and one use of moderate language
USA Release Date: 28 November 2007 (Limited Release - New York and Los Angeles)
UK Release Date: 8 February 2008

Synopsis

In 1995 at the age of 43, Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), charismatic Editor-in-Chief of French Elle magazine, suffered a massive stroke. He emerged from a coma 20 days later to find himself the victim of locked-in syndrome - although mentally alert, he was a prisoner inside his own body, only able to communicate with the outside world by blinking his left eye. Forced to adjust to this unique perspective, Bauby created a rich new world, looking into himself to find the only two things that weren't paralyzed: his imagination and his memory.

At The Maritime Hospital in Berck-Sur-Mer, he was taught a code using the most common letters in the French alphabet. Blinking letter by letter to form painstaking words, sentences and paragraphs, he recounted a profound adventure into the human psyche. His alphabet unlocked the prison of Jean-Dominique's body (the Diving Bell) enabling him to soar to the borderless realm of freedom (the Butterfly).