[ I recieved this image from: http://aycu27.webshots.com/image/44106/2005242261641953671_rs.jpg]After reviewing some of the specific scenes in the film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, I was able to more closely analyze some of the specifics of the film. I believe the most compelling part of this film was the fact that a majority of the film was based on a point of view shot which the book The Film Experience – an Introduction written by Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White tells us is a camera shot that “re-creates the perspective of a character and may incorporate camera movement or optical effects as well as camera angle in order to do so” (88-89). In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, point of view shots are used effectively to portray the feelings of the main character, Jean-Do so that the audience could feel or get some sort of sense of what Jean-Do was going through.
Most of these point of view scenes were more towards the beginning of the film. They were used so that we, as the audience, could be introduced to what Jean-Do might have been feeling those first few days he woke from a coma and realized that he had gone through a major stroke and could no longer speak or move. Probably the most excruciating part for Jean-Do and for the audience was the scene in which the doctor sews Jean-Do’s eye shut. The camera shot is again, a point of view shot, but literally it is as if you are Jean-Do; your eyes are Jean-Do’s eyes…it is almost as if your own eye is being sewn up. You want to fight along with Jean-Do, to yell at the doctor and tell him to stop. But, similarly to Jean-Do, you cannot do anything because you are the audience, the viewer and the doctor can not hear you. This helps you to experience the feelings of Jean-Do even more because all he can do is observe; he cannot speak or move to encourage the doctor to stop.
Throughout the rest of the film, the audience is taken away from Jean-Do’s perspective so that you can see Jean-Do through the perspective of other individuals in the film. However, towards the end of the film, when Jean-Do is beginning to creep towards death, the shots again turn to point-of-view shots in which the viewer is again Jean-Do, experiencing death. In the final scenes, the viewer is Jean-Do with much clouded vision. Low angles, point of view shots are used to give the effect that you are Jean-Do lying in bed, hardly understanding the words of the visitors who come to see you, waiting for death. It is an extremely difficult scene to end on, mainly because your vision, the vision of Jean-Do, is so clouded and unclear. However, it is effective because it once again brings the viewer back to the point of no control. You can not yell at Jean-Do’s wife for only visiting him when he is almost dead. You can not reach out and touch any of the visitors. Jean-Do can not do any of these things, either, therefore you are brought back to the sincerity of Jean-Do’s condition and the viewer is once again in the shoes of the main character, pulled from their own reality into the reality of Jean-Do.
In all, I believe the most effective part of this film were the point of view shots. They created feelings, in me and in others I’m sure, of confusion and frustration not only for Jean-Do, but for yourself because you could do nothing to speak or yell at the other characters in the movie for Jean-Do’s sake. Without these camera shots, the film would not have been quite as moving or effective. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was a deeply emotional, intimate, and personal movie that I will continue to love and view again in the future.
Most of these point of view scenes were more towards the beginning of the film. They were used so that we, as the audience, could be introduced to what Jean-Do might have been feeling those first few days he woke from a coma and realized that he had gone through a major stroke and could no longer speak or move. Probably the most excruciating part for Jean-Do and for the audience was the scene in which the doctor sews Jean-Do’s eye shut. The camera shot is again, a point of view shot, but literally it is as if you are Jean-Do; your eyes are Jean-Do’s eyes…it is almost as if your own eye is being sewn up. You want to fight along with Jean-Do, to yell at the doctor and tell him to stop. But, similarly to Jean-Do, you cannot do anything because you are the audience, the viewer and the doctor can not hear you. This helps you to experience the feelings of Jean-Do even more because all he can do is observe; he cannot speak or move to encourage the doctor to stop.
Throughout the rest of the film, the audience is taken away from Jean-Do’s perspective so that you can see Jean-Do through the perspective of other individuals in the film. However, towards the end of the film, when Jean-Do is beginning to creep towards death, the shots again turn to point-of-view shots in which the viewer is again Jean-Do, experiencing death. In the final scenes, the viewer is Jean-Do with much clouded vision. Low angles, point of view shots are used to give the effect that you are Jean-Do lying in bed, hardly understanding the words of the visitors who come to see you, waiting for death. It is an extremely difficult scene to end on, mainly because your vision, the vision of Jean-Do, is so clouded and unclear. However, it is effective because it once again brings the viewer back to the point of no control. You can not yell at Jean-Do’s wife for only visiting him when he is almost dead. You can not reach out and touch any of the visitors. Jean-Do can not do any of these things, either, therefore you are brought back to the sincerity of Jean-Do’s condition and the viewer is once again in the shoes of the main character, pulled from their own reality into the reality of Jean-Do.
In all, I believe the most effective part of this film were the point of view shots. They created feelings, in me and in others I’m sure, of confusion and frustration not only for Jean-Do, but for yourself because you could do nothing to speak or yell at the other characters in the movie for Jean-Do’s sake. Without these camera shots, the film would not have been quite as moving or effective. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was a deeply emotional, intimate, and personal movie that I will continue to love and view again in the future.
1 comment:
It's interesting that all Diving Bell does is point out the helplessness that is ALWAYS our state as the audience, but, in this case, that helplessness seems so much more devastating. I wonder if the movie is making a comment, in a more general way, about the very nature of spectatorship?
Post a Comment