The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

The narrative of The Diving Bell And The Butterfly reflects the main theme in the film brilliantly, the narrative is monotonous, drawn out and could be viewed as repetitive however this is done purposely as the main theme of the film is to show an audience what this mans life was actually like and eighty percent of it would have been extremely repetitive and often very lonely and bland. Another part of the narrative is the name of the film, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, a diving bell is a big, clunky, heavy, old fashioned diving suit and a butterfly is a vibrant, active and elegant insect that represents life at its fullest these two juxtaposing images and references are to do with Jean-Do's mind and body. The diving bell representing his now lifeless and useless body, in contrast the butterfly represents his brain and his heart and the intense emotion he still feels, often vibrant and most definitely lively throughout his life even though he's stuck in this paralysed state.
The structure of the film does follow Todorov's theory of equilibrium, for instance equilibrium is set in place, its then disrupted by Jean-Do's stroke, they attempt to repair but fail as in the end he sadly passes however equilibrium is still restored because Jean-Do is in a much better place. However the film isn't in chronological order as throughout the middle of the film there are flashbacks to times of when Jean-Do is younger and the viewer doesn't see Jean-Do have the stroke until right at the end of the film. It could be argued the chronology is like this because the film is following how Jean-Do is remembering all of these memories, especially the ones with his father and his kids when he was younger, before he had a life changing stroke.

Mise-en-scene

Throughout the film the imagery of icebergs are used, this could be inferred in many ways. One way it could be inferred is that icebergs are huge boulders of ice floating in the arctic oceans, however what you see above the surface melts and breaks away however theres still a huge boulder of ice under the surface of the water that you cant see, this could be linked to Jean-Do and how the part of him everyone can see, his body and physical self, is effectively useless and that the thing that can not be seen, his brain and imagination, is still there just as strong as it was it's just not visible due to him not being able to express any of his thoughts or emotions.
One device used to communicate Jean-Do's frustration is voiceover, especially at the start of the film as he is morbid, he vents a lot of anger and the fact he is paralysed doesn't properly sink in so the voiceover comes across of extremely bitter another device is the visuals and the use of the diving bell, in the first scene with the diving bell it's a close up shot and inside this diving bell he is screaming, but no one can hear him this connotes the feeling of someone with locked in syndrome, the feeling of being lost and no one being able to hear you.
In the fathers day scene Jean-Do is trusted with shaving his father, making his in-able father in a vulnerable position. In contrast, Jean-Do is buzzing around him trying to shave his father, concentrating on doing a good job of it and Jean-Do is the only thing in the room that isn't static, he's the only thing moving freely. The scene in which Jean-Do's children visit him, Jean-Do and everything around him is completely juxtaposed to the fathers day scene, Jean-Do is now the one in the vulnerable situation with his son wiping the saliva from his dead, still lips. Most importantly everything else is moving. The girls hair is down and their clothes are baggy, they fly and wisp in the wind whilst he's completely still, unable to move, also Jean-Dos imagination of him sitting on the wooden tower in the sea also connotes that he is inanimate but everything around him is moving (the waves crashing and flowing).

Performance

Mathieu Amalric, (Jean-Do), said in the "making of" documentary that he actually had to tense all of his muscles just to stay deadly still for the character, which in some ways can add to the emotion of the role as he makes it look and feel authentic, this man is actually paralysed and in pain. Another way in which he creates emotion, despite being completely static, is through the way he blinks and the way in which often if he is frustrated he will blink rapidly and in one scene with his wife you can see him almost welling up which is extremely impressive considering the actor is fully mobile and he knows how to vent his emotions but he's been tasked with playing someone who is the complete opposite.