14 Days of Screenplays, Version 3.0 -- Day 9: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Today is Day 9 of the "14 Days of Screenplays, Version 3.0" challenge and the featured screenplay is for the movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). You can download the script from myPDFscripts.com here

Background: Nominated for 4 Academy Awards including Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published as well as the WGA Best Adapted Screenplay award. The screenplay was written by Ronald Harwood, based on a novel by Jean-Dominique Bauby, and the movie was directed by Julian Schnabel. It is currently rated as the #221 out of top 250 movies on IMDB.com.

In this Movieweb interview, Harwood describes how one key narrative device was imagining the camera to be the POV of the story's Protagonist Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost paralyzed body, only his left eye functional:



I want to give time for people to weigh in about the script, those who have read it for the challenge as well as anyone else who has read the script in the past. I'll update this post with my thoughts on the script later tonight.

What did you think of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly?

For links to all 14 scripts in the challenge, go here.

And remember: We'll be reading 1 script per day and discussing them through November 22. I'll be posting something everyday at 4PM U.S. Eastern Daylight Time / 1PM PST for your comments.

The script for Day 10 of the challenge is Aliens, available at myPDFscripts.com.

UPDATE: A beautiful script with two wonderful narrative devices: The camera as Jean-Do's perspective of the world through his left-eye and the visual metaphor of the diving bell and butterfly, an image the story returns to time and time again.

I'm also struck by the Protagonist's transformation, which follows the Disunity-Deconstruction-Reconstruction-Unity arc.

Disunity: In Act One, the story sets up Jean-Do whose body is literally barely functional and yet with an active mind, so broadly speaking: Body ('Death') / Mind ('Alive'). His reaction to the stroke and its assault on his body at first is to feel like "This is hell" (P. 20), then to say, "I want to die" (P. 30). But once he realizes he can "imagine himself anywhere" (P. 40), he decides he wants to "write the book" (P. 43), signifying the end of Act One plot point, where he leaves his 'old' world behind and enters a 'new' world tied to the writing of his book.

Deconstruction: What is deconstructed is the fatalism and pessimism he has had re his condition, but as part of that process, there are two sequences where Jean-Do recalls a pair of experiences: One going to Lourdes with a lover Josephine, and the other where he visits his father, each forcing him to face painful parts of his recent past. Meanwhile he writes. Daily. Leading to the Transition (P. 70) where Jean-Do is seen to be capable of turning his head.

Reconstruction: This movement in the story is marked by a notable scene - A "wonderful day" where Sylvie and his children come to visit for the first time, signifying reconnection with his family - and another physical turning point, his ability to vocalize the alphabet. However this is soon followed by a phone call from his lover, who confesses she cannot bear to visit him / see him how he is, and Jean-Do coming down with pneumonia.

Unity: Through his hardships, Jean-Do manages to complete his book, offering his special insights to the rest of the world, representing a complete connection with his creativity (butterfly), but two days after the book's publication, Jean-Do dies, his soul at one with his body.

Beautiful script. Beautiful movie.