Movie-The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

This movie, a true story can be difficult to watch. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells the story of a man, after having an event similar to a stroke, is locked within his own body. His only moving part...one eye.

This man was the editor of Elle in Paris. He lived a nice life...cars, friends, a type of power. And it was suddenly reduced to one eye. And with that one eye, he tells his life story in writing his auto-biography.

The director tells much of the story from the vantage point of this man's eye. We see the outside world as he sees it. We are privy to his thoughts, but he cannot express those to anyone else until a system is developed for him to communicate one letter at a time.

We feel frustrated and hopeless with him. As his aging father talks with him, a role played wonderfully by Max Von Sydow, we can see a bit of emotion on his immobile face, but we can see his one eye tearing up...and yet just that pierces the viewer's heart.

As I said, this is not an easy movie to watch, especially because it is true. It is a monument to how hard we try to survive, and to find a semblance of happiness in the worst of conditions. In short, it reminds us of the human condition. It reminds us to ding what happiness we can eke out, and not to forsake it.

Not easy to watch, but well worth it.