The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is shot in a very particular way that I’ve never seen before. It starts off right away as blurry and confusing until the point of view is clear that it is shown from a perspective of the main character. Jean-Do is lying in a hospital and the only shots that are visible are what he can see from his perspective. He is diagnosed with locked-in syndrome where he is paralyzed from head to toe, only able to blink and use his left eye. The four attributes of the Shot are clearly noticed and have a huge impact on the cinematography of the film. The framing, color, depth of field, and movement all play a huge role from the beginning to the final credits of the film.
Throughout the first hour of the film it’s all in subjective point of view of Jean-Do who only sees certain things on screen with his one eye. The entire beginning sequence is canted framing that included a lot of off screen space; which is when you can tell there is more of a scene that exists beyond the shot that it shows on screen. For example, when Celine visits Jean-Do, the framing cuts off her head and can only see her body because she isn’t directly looking into Jean-Do’s eyes. Frames like that make me sit on the edge of my seat because I just want the camera to shift a tiny bit up just so I can see her face. When the doctor is explaining to her how he can respond “yes” and “no” with a blink of an eye, he informs her that Jean-Do can only see if you look directly at him. When he walks over to the left and right of the frame, he disappears from the screen and reappears again to show her that he cannot see from those certain angles. Whenever someone speaks to Jean-Do, it’s always close-up shots of the character’s face and is in focus for the most part which gives the audience a good visual remembrance of who comes and visits Jean-Do.
The value of image is beautiful. When Jean-Do is lying in his hospital bed, the main colors that are noticed are white, red, black, and bright yellow. The hospital room is white and has red curtains and vibrant red flowers sitting next to his bed by the windowsill. Near the window there is a bright light shining in through the blinds that creates a florescent yellow. Whenever Jean-Do closes his eyes there is black and red underneath his eyelids which makes the shot more realistic as the audience was looking right through his eyes.
The way that the depth of field was produced in this film made the perspective much more realistic and understandable. The feeling of confinement and imprisonment overcomes the audience as we are trapped inside Jean-Do’s body just as he feels with his locked-in syndrome. Right when the film starts it opens with Jean-Do’s eyes opening and the blurriness of his focus goes in and out very inconsistently. Every time Jean-Do closes his eyes the screen goes black and when he opens them back up it is blurry and slowly becomes clearer. The focus is all over the place and mostly filled with dutch angles and head shots where certain people from a distance are in focus and the surroundings in the distance are out of focus.
A good example of movement in this movie was the first time we see Jean-Do in a wheel chair. He was with his lady-friend who helped him write his book up on the roof of the hospital and it was when he spelled out to her “I’ve stopped pitying myself.” This shot is meaningful because it goes from a long shot to an extreme long shot in one frame and the movement and cinematography shows that he is let free. A beautiful shot of them and their surroundings is all in focus in that extreme long shot.
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