OVERALL LOOK
The movie The Diving
Bell and The Butterfly (dir. Julian Schnabel, 2007) had Janusz Kaminski as
the cinematographer. Kaminski was nominated
for an Academy Award for cinematography and won the Satellite Award for best
cinematography in 2008. Kaminiski was
able to give the perspective of a first person point of view with his pans,
tilts and Dutch camera angles. The
camera was the eye of the protagonist Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric)
who was only able to see and communicate out of one eye.
The narrative is simple, yet the mis-en-scene is anything unlike anything I have seen before. The setting is mainly
in the hospital where we first are Bauby, but then progresses to see the outside world through his eyes and then we finally see him as he really looks to the audience. We learn through the narrative that he writes his memoir in this incapacitated state.
First person point of view, Bauby seeing his doctors for the first time. Dutch angle and rack focus
The audience finally gets to see Bauby
Establishing shot of the family during a beach picnic. The Dutch angle shows the disorientation to life that Bauby must now live through.
IMAGES
This film takes place in present time, but what Bauby really sees, feels and imagines is all part of his psyche trying to cope with his life altering diagnosis.
Bauby trying to get a fly off his nose, but he is helpless. Lighting to highlight the fly's power over Bauby.
Bauby and his therapist learning to communicate through his alphabet board. High key
Bauby explains that he feels like a diver in a bell suit that can not come up, the weight of his body is so heavy that he can not come to the surface. He also has this utter despair, a failure to thrive causing him to give up on himself.
Bauby imagines what the Naval hospital, that he is receiving treatment in, looked like in the past with many children suffering from Tuberculosis. Example of a LS
Even though Bauby feels alone and isolated, stuck on a platform in the middle of the ocean, away from the life that he knew, he actually has family that loves, cares and tries to support him during this trying time. This is an example of EWS.
SHOT LENGTHS
When we see the diver being pulled down with the diving bell, we can't help but feel hopeless with Bauby. We sink with him, surrounded by nothingness and the will to survive is non-existent. The length of these scenes starts off long and slowly decreases in length. From this we can deduce that his willingness to thrive is returning and he is growing, metaphorically, wings to be able to free himself from his quadriplegia. Scenes with his nurse when she is dictating his memoir are short takes are short. However, scenes with his family are longer to express the time he wants to be with them and remember the happy times in life.
Bauby drifting off into his imagination of the Naval hospital.
Talking with his father and how they are both trapped.
Time with his wife and he knows he treated her and the children horribly.
SHOT TYPES
When Bauby finds himself in the hospital the shots are of short duration using ellipsis editing. When he is outside with his family or friends,
they are long duration. These
shots create a sense of importance to Bauby.
We are becoming connected to these vital characters since they are vital
to Bauby’s life. In the early parts of
the movie, everything is ECU of people, as the movie progresses the ECU’s
become CUs with the doctors and nurses.
Jump cuts and Dutch angles were used to add to the disorientation of
Bauby and time. With the therapist we
see her as a MCU then to a MS. As the
movie progresses we start to see more detail of his room and surroundings with
MLS and then we see him interact with this friends and family through LS and
ELS. The only WS is when him and his
family are at the beach enjoying their time together. Most LS and ELS were very balanced and very
scenic, they follow the thirds rule in cinematography. I noticed moderate mood colors
and tonality. The whole movie did not
try to unnerve the audience, but rather bring about a calming, positive mood to the
movie. The only time you feel distressed is
in the very beginning and end of the movie. With these two scenes you feel hopelessness with Bauby.
Example of an ECU with Bauby's therapist.
CAMERA ANGLES
In the beginning of the movie it is mostly high angle views showing
Bauby as confused and powerless to his locked-in syndrome, the antagonist. There is discontinuity editing and rack focus
to further disorient the viewer. As the
movie progresses we see with eye neutral views, master shots and continuity
editing. Eventually we see him first in
a mirror, then as himself with eye level shots.
There are numerous eye-line match cuts in order to understand what Bauby's point of view is at a particular moment.
Primary doctor the situation to Bauby's wife while she sees him for the first time in the wheelchair. Bauby's neutral point of view, Dutch angle with a MLS.
High angle and over the shoulder shot of therapist and Bauby in his hospital bed. Example of a MS.
Dutch angle and the dreary mood of Bauby's surroundings.
Worms's eye view of him enjoying his drive with his son just before tragedy strikes. As if Kaminiski wanted us to feel his superiority to everything around him.
COMPOSITION
There are flashbacks and a backstory of his life to give meaning
and narrative as to why he feels like he is in this situation. We see him dreaming of a hospital where there
are sick children and he finds himself lost amongst them needing help. We see photo shoots of models when he was normal, he goes through marital strife, and family issues with his father. Ellipsis editing is brought in when he
remembers his father and then we meet his father in the present. We have a very restricted first person
narration. Initially, we meet Bauby, a flat
character, and slowly as the narrative continues, we relate to a rounded
character who has gone through life with common peaks and valleys. There is low key lighting when Bauby first realizes
he is in the hospital and then gradually the lighting becomes high key to
soften the overall mood of the movie.
The open frames allow for characters to come in and out of plane and at
different depths of field using the offscreen and onscreen space. Often there were two and three shot point of view. Deep space composition was utilized in Bauby’s
hospital room.
Flashback to a photo shoot with a lighting ratio that shows Bauby with minimal contrast, but the foreground model and background people are shadowed to show less importance. All three planes are in focus
When the family is out for a beach picnic you never get a CU of the children, but rather only his wife when they converse. As if the children in his life are not as important to him. It is a gloomy day accentuating the gloomy state of the family and situation.
Another flackback and backstroy with Bauby shaving his father with low key lighting, giving superiority to the father over Bauby and his life decisions.
CAMERA MOVEMENT
At first we see the camera of panning and tilting of the
camera was used for disorientation of Bauby situation with rack focus. Eventually we see Bauby through his own eyes
with a tracking in and then we see the world through the 180 degree point of view camera and
see dolly in and dolly out, crane shots, and at the end of the movie we have
the trucking point of view, where we see him have his stroke. Kaminiski uses onscreen and offscreen space
to give a sense of the bigger picture without visually seeing it.
We first meet his therapists, hearing Bauby's reply to their questions and further instilling the fact that they can not hear his answers. CU's are prevalent in the beginning of the movie.
CINEMATOGRAPHY STYLE
I believe the cinematography form is intentionally done to
make the audience feel like they are Bauby.
I feel Schnabel and Kaminiski wanted the viewer to feel what Bauby was
going through during each phase of his recuperation, this was not by accident.
The rack focus, the panning, the tilting and the plot were all purposeful actions
to add to the story, mood and realism of the movie.
I feel Schnabel and Kaminiski wanted the audience to feel an implicit
meaning to life, but by also showing it through the explicit catastrophe
that Bauby endured through this theme that life must go on.
The film begins and ends with Bauby's point of view
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