Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson February 15, 2023

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a film that harnesses the creative resources of the cinema and opens the art form to new possibilities. Although it is told from the perspective of an invalid, the picture deftly explores his inner thoughts, imagination, and dreams. Julian Schnabel's third feature is based on the eponymous best-selling memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby, a French editor of Elle magazine. While driving his convertible, Bauby suffers a massive cerebrovascular stroke that renders him paralyzed from head to toes. As the movie opens, Bauby is immobilized on a hospital bed in the northern French seaside commune of Berck-sur-Mer near Calais. He has been in a coma for nearly three weeks. The camera lens is filtered through only his left eye because his right eye to being sewn shut to prevent an infection. The blurry-eyed images show doctors, nurses, and orderlies coming in and out of his room. Le Docteur Lepage (Patrick Chesnais) gives him the sobering news that he has "locked-in syndrome," which leaves him in near paralysis except for his left eye. Jean-Dominic Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), known as "Jean-Do" to his family and friends, delivers interior monologues of comic irreverence that are only heard by the audience. Bauby thinks he is in heaven when he gazes at two attractive women who will be working with him: the speech therapist Henriette Roi (Marie-Josée Croze) and physiotherapist Marie Lopez (Olatz López Garmendia). Bauby receives a visit from his estranged partner, Céline (Emmanuelle Seigner), and their three kids, who spend time together on the beach. Joséphine (Marina Hands), Bauby's girlfriend, prefers only to communicate with him via speaker phone because she doesn't want to see him in his current state.

One of the most remarkable aspects of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is how Bauby develops a unique communication system with his amanuensis, Claude (Ann Consigny). Bauby is under contract with his publisher to write a book but he could never imagine it would entail recounting life after his cerebrovascular accident. Claude and Jean-Do begin understanding each other when the latter blinks his eye once for "yes" and twice for "no." After Claude teaches him the most common letters and words in the French alphabet, Jean-Do learns to make additional blinking signals so he can form short non-verbal sentences. It is an astounding feat that after a year in the hospital, Jean-Do is able to conceive a full narrative and turn it into a 130-page book that chronicles his thoughts and experiences.

Jean-Do's eye.

The first third of the film is mainly restricted to the audience seeing out of Bauby's left eye. It recalls Robert Montgomery's experimental Lady in the Lake (1946), an underrated noir that's seen entirely from private detective Phillip Marlowe's POV. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly isn't as bold in its subjective POV because it shifts perspective from Bauby to external non-diegetic sources, including found footage and nature documentaries. The camera also shifts to third person when it shows Bauby's ailing father, Papinou (Max von Sydow), home alone in his apartment speaking over the phone to his mute son. It's a heartbreaking moment that's nicely counterbalanced by a humorous flashback where Bauby shaves his dad's face. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is not a melancholic experience because it demonstrates how much can be achieved through the infinite powers of the mind.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paramount Pictures gives The Diving Bell and the Butterfly its first Blu-ray release in the US on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 36.63 GB). My colleague Svet Atanasov reviewed the Alliance Blu-ray a dozen years ago. The American and Canadian HD editions are sourced from similar prints but their transfers are not identical. While both appear in the native aspect ratio of 1.85:1, you'll notice that the facial tone in Screenshot #34 on the Paramount is a little pinker/ruddier that it is on the Alliance. The Paramount seems to have a coarser grain structure than the Alliance, which appears clearer and sharper to my eyes. I have reason to believe that the US print derives from Australian label Pathé! Icon Entertainment's Region B disc from 2010, although the picture is opened up to 1.78:1. Paramount does improve on compression. The disc's average video bitrate is 36000 kbps, which nearly doubles Alliance's 19795 kbps.

Screenshots 1-20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34 & 36 = Paramount Pictures 2023 BD-50
Screenshots 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33 & 35 = Alliance 2011 BD-25

The 112-minute feature receives eleven scene selections. (Alliance provides twenty-one chapters.)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Paramount has supplied a French Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround track with a whopping bitrate of 4128 kbps (24-bit). This is up from Alliance's French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround mix (3877 kbps, 24-bit). For moments of extra f/x on the satellite speakers, I could hear the walls of my home theater shake while playing the Dolby TrueHD mix. Composer Paul Cantelon contributes a fine piano score. It is secondary, however, to ballads by The Dirtbombs, Velvet Underground (a wordless rendition of "Pale Blue Eyes"), U2, and Tom Waits. You'll see from Screenshot #s 21-36 that the Paramount displays light yellow English subtitles that were burned into the cinema print and are accordingly non-removable on this disc. The Alliance boasts optional white subtitles.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As Svet notes in his review of the Alliance edition, the Canadian Blu-ray recycled an audio commentary with Schnabel from the 2008 R1 Miramax DVD. The BD-25 retained other extras such as "Submerged: The Making of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (12:40), "A Cinematic Vision" (7:12), and "Charlie Rose Interviews Julian Schnabel" (20:42). It's very unfortunate that Paramount didn't license any of these bonus features. Like the Region B Pathé! BD-50 from Australia, this disc is a bare bones.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly shows that however incapacitated our bodies we may become, our brains are still capable of accomplishing extraordinary things. This budget release by Paramount boasts a similar transfer to the Alliance from twelve years ago. I would grade the video on the Paramount a 3.25/5.00. I agree with Svet's observations about the image on Alliance, which I slightly prefer. Paramount does improve on the Canadian's authoring and compression, however, and also delivers a pulsating Dolby TrueHD sound track in 5.1. Alas, extras are nil. I would love to see deluxe Blu-ray editions of Schnabel's Basquiat (1996) and Before Night Falls (2000). A SOLID RECOMMENDATION for this no-frills release.