The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

“Let your imagination set you free.”

Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), the editor-in-chief of Elle, wakes after a stroke at 43 to find his body will not answer him, and the only part left under his control is his left eye. Julian Schnabel puts us behind that eye, so the hospital looks blurred and the voices come from somewhere above. Bauby spells out a book one blink at a time with his speech therapist Henriette (Marie-Josée Croze), and the work leans on the patience between them.