“Mindful Movie Night”
Friday, January 31, 2020
The Diving Bell & The Butterfly (112 mins)
Begins at 7:00 p.m.
The Diving Bell & The Butterfly tells the astonishing true-life story of Jean-Dominic Bauby, a man who held the world in his palm, lost everything to sudden paralysis at 43 years old, and somehow found the strength to rebound. Directed by world-renowned artist Julian Schnabel, this multiple award-winning film from 2007 follows Bauby’s instantaneous descent from a wealthy playboy and the editor of French Elle, to a bed-bound, hospitalized stroke victim with an inactive brain stem that made it impossible for him to speak or move a muscle of his body. This prison, as it were, became a kind of “diving bell” for Bauby – one with no means of escape. With the editor’s mind unaffected, his only solace lay in the “butterfly” of his seemingly depthless fantasies and memories. Because of Bauby’s physical restriction, he only possessed one channel for communication with the outside world: ocular activity. By moving his eyes and blinking, he not only began to interact again with the world around him, but – incredibly – authored a best-selling memoir via a code used to signify specific letters of the alphabet. Films like this are rare – movies that celebrate what is best in humanity in a powerful and moving way; one that perfectly blends the tragic with the triumphant.
Christopher Palbicki and Shona Burke will lead a discussion after the showing of the film.
