One of my all time favorites.

Absolutely Brilliant!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I was briefly introduced to the real story of Jean-Dominique Bauby prior to watching the movie. And being somewhat familiar with his story, fate and situation, then I was really looking forward to seeing this movie.I must say that while his story and fate is indeed a tragic one, and one that sinks right into the heart but still an inspiring story as well, then this movie was unfathomably boring. It was so slow-paced and uneventful that it was somewhat of an ordeal to sit through. And with that in mind, one can only speculate about the horrible ordeal that life and situation must have been for Bauby himself in real life.The acting was quite nice, and the actors and actresses really delivered great performances. But they were just weighed down by a rather slow-paced and uneventful storyline. I mean that in the sense that we can quickly and easily get sympathy for Bauby and his unique situation, but this story hardly required a movie about it, as it would be given so much more justice if it was a biography instead to be read.Visually and emotionally a nice movie, but just one that didn't really offer all that much in terms of entertainment. Despite the fact it was dealing with a very unique theme.

Quintessential French movie. The director's inventiveness succeeds in bringing a fairly static book to the screen. I feared the subjective camerawork, the voice-over narration and the jumping backwards in time would spoil it but the director lets no difficulty get in his way. Other reviewers have pointed out something I was unaware of - the film takes liberties with the true story especially in its treatment of Bauby's girlfriend. (viewed 10/16)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (original French title: Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) is not only the story of what happened to Jean-Dominique Bauby after he suffered a stroke, it is a story of the human will, and the fighting spirit of Mr. Bauby in particular. There's no doubt about it, the real life story is a 10 out of 10. How about the movie?Unfortunately the movie doesn't quite live up to its potential, or do full justice to this amazing story. That's not to say it isn't well acted. Mathieu Amalric can not be faulted, he is flawless in his portrayal of Jean-Dominique Bauby. However, the movie does not quite deliver on the emotional level, or in setting up the story fully. We spend a lot of time seeing Bauby communicating with beautiful women by blinking his left eye. It becomes more about the writing of the book than it does about his life and his incredible accomplishment. Even the conclusion fades away.It's still a movie I would recommend, most of all because of the overall qualities intrinsic in the real life story. Done right, it could have been a multiple Academy-award winning movie.

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is a difficult movie to watch. However, given the subject matter, they manage to do an excellent job. And, since it's currently on the IMDb Top 250 List (currently #243), obviously a lot of people found it to be worth seeing.When the film begins, you see what the world looks like when a man (Jean-Dominique Bauby) very, very slowly awakens for the first time in weeks. It seems he's been in a coma and this is the result of a stroke--a stroke occurring to a vibrant man who was only in his early 40s at the time. This is possibly the best part of the film and it caught my attention--the fascinating use of very unusual camera angles, focus and close-ups.After this preliminary examination is complete, one thing is obvious to the doctors---Jean-Dominque cannot talk or communicate. He THINKS he's communicating but no one can hear me and he's locked inside his broken body. Soon the doctors tell him he has something called a 'locked-in syndrome'. In other words, he might never re-learn to communicate or move--this is a horribly scary diagnosis. However, through the course of the film, he learns that he can move his one eye and with that he then learns to communicate.After working with therapists, Jean-Dominique has an unusual request--he wants his therapist to call a publisher. It seems that he (who was the real life editor of 'Elle' magazine) had an existing contract to write a book--and now he wanted to dictate his memoirs! To do this, he had to use a painfully slow methods involving blinks to spell out every word of the text! Long, complicated but, amazingly, quite possible--resulting an an actual book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"--which also became the title of this movie.I could say more about the film but it's best to just see it yourself. I should point out that although it's listed as a French-language film on IMDb, somehow (perhaps much later) an English language dub was also made--using many of the actual voices of folks in the movie (which IS unusual). All in all, I was surprised how watchable the dub was, as I usually avoid dubs because they are done so poorly and so much of the original film is often lost. All in all, it's an exceptional film.By the way, if you DO watch the film be aware that there is some nudity (in his dreams and flashbacks) and a few of the scenes in the film are tough to watch. It's really not a kids film.