Watch this when
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
His body stopped moving. His imagination never did. He wrote a whole book one blink at a time. 🦋
Who it's for
The film places viewers inside Jean-Dominique Bauby's point of view after a stroke leaves him with locked-in syndrome, able to move only his left eye.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Julian Schnabel's French-language film, adapted by Ronald Harwood from Jean-Dominique Bauby's 1997 memoir, tells the true story of the editor of Elle magazine (Mathieu Amalric), who wakes from a weeks-long coma after a massive stroke with locked-in syndrome, unable to move or speak. In a hospital in Berck-sur-Mer, he learns to communicate by blinking his left eye as letters are read aloud to him.
Where to find it
Rent or buy on major digital stores. Streaming availability rotates; check JustWatch.
Before you start
Heads up: A wish to die after a paralyzing stroke.
Age: PG-13 (nudity, sexual content, some language)
“Hope” is the thing with feathers – That perches in the soul – And sings the tune without the words – And never stops – at all –Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the thing with feathers” (poem 314)
