The Diving Bell and the Butterfly · AAC Presents: The Cinema · Artistic Accessibility Collective

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly(2007)

Based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir, written by blinking his left eye — the only movement possible after a brainstem stroke left him with locked-in syndrome. Schnabel puts the camera behind Bauby's eye for the film's first act, putting the viewer in locked-in consciousness in a way that's unlike any other film. Beautiful, devastating, and formally inventive. Raises complex questions about narrative control of disabled lives in cinema — worth watching critically alongside disability studies scholarship.