1. ASSIGNED READINGSVisualizing Disability in the Film Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Critical Essay2. VIEW/ STREAM ONLINE To stream online the French film:The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)Re

Author(s): TESS JEWELL

Source: Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal , September 2013 , Vol. 46, No. 3, a

special issue: BLINDNESS (September 2013), pp. 109-124

Published by: University of Manitoba

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/44030344

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This essay examines how the first-person perspective employed in Julian Schnabel's Le scaphandre et le papil-

lon draws on previous cinematic traditions to configure blindness for a sighted audience. Engaging with com-

mon metaphors of disability, the essay explores whether this film's cinematic representation of blindness opens

new possibilities for conceptualizing visual impairment.

Blinding the Screen:

Visualizing Disability in

Le scaphandre et le papillon

TESS JEWELL

Where is your authentic body? You are the only one

who can never see yourself except as an image: you

never see your eyes unless they are dulled by the gaze

that rests upon the mirror or the lens [. . .] even and

especially for your own body, you are condemned to

the repertoire of its images .

- Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes

The cal self capacity ability in the to absence lies envision at the of physi- centre one's

self in the absence of physi-

cal capacity lies at the centre

of Julian Schnabel's 2007 film, Le scaphandre et le papillon, adapted from the memoir

of the same name by French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby. Dramatizing Bauby's

experiences after a stroke at age 43 leaves him completely paralyzed except for the abil-

ity to blink, the film combines an extended first-person perspective with experimental

camera techniques to give the audience a first-hand understanding of Bauby's struggle

to accept his new life and body. Although Bauby never experiences complete blindness

during the film, this novel approach to cinematography draws on an extensive tradi-

tion of metaphors of blindness in both cinema and literature, by employing different

modes of camera perspective and distortion to juxtapose the physical experience of

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110 Mosaic 4 6/3 ( September 2013yf

visual impairment against the mental clarity of memory and insight. As such, Le

scaphandre et le papillon presents a unique opportunity to analyze an extended first-

person representation of visual impairment, as well as to examine how this represen-

tation diverges from previous, more metaphorical conceptions of blindness in

Western culture. Considering perspectives on blindness from the fields of visual cul-

ture and critical disability studies, this essay combines visual and discourse analysis in

its approach to the film's portrayal of Bauby's experience. Accordingly, it also exam-

ines the film as an adaptation of a personal narrative of disability to determine the

impact of this change in authorship on the portrayal of visual impairment and dis-

ability in general. In so doing, the essay focuses particularly on the visual and

metaphorical representation of blindness and disability in the film, while touching

briefly on the audience's identification with Bauby and on phenomenological per-

spectives on embodiment. Based on these considerations, this essay argues that

although the representation of disability in Le scaphandre et le papillon retains both

the tragic and metaphorical connotations found so problematic in critical disability

studies, its visual techniques offer Bauby the greatest moments of agency in the film,

as well as a uniquely literal manifestation of disability that suggests new possibilities

for representation. The chief contributions of this research are thus to begin theoriz-

ing what a non-metaphorical representation of blindness might comprise, while at

the same time providing a stronger foundation for the future study of cinematic rep-

resentations of blindness.

Given is useful that to Le begin scaphandre this discussion et le papillon by is, considering at its core, critical a narrative disability about theory's disability, per- it is useful to begin this discussion by considering critical disability theory's per-

spective on the film as an adaptation of an autobiographical text. Contrary to a med-

ical approach, which views disability as a deficiency compared to an established

standard of normalcy, the social model posits that certain kinds of bodies are con-

structed as disabled by the wider social, political, cultural, and economic structures

that regulate their existence (see Garland-Thomson and Longmoreyf , W V F U L W L T X H V R f

these structures are founded on the idea that the pity, compassion, or neglect with

which disabled people are treated marginalizes them by invalidating alternative ways

of living in the world. In Bauby's case, his sudden, complete loss of ability under-

standably warrants both pity and compassion, and the neglect he experiences from

hospital staff who make little attempt to communicate with him is an important

aspect of the narrative. However, the film still frames this narrative within what

Michael Oliver calls "the personal tragedy theory of disability," whereas the written

memoir is instead an example of "disabled people themselves [needing] to provide This content downloaded from

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Tess Jewell 111

both critiques of this implicit theory and to construct their own alternatives" {lyf / e

scaphandre et le papillon is, at least as a memoir, Bauby's attempt to transform his own

personal tragedy into a tale of meaning and self- validation. After the stroke, not only

is he forced to come to terms with his own reconfigured existence, but he also feels

obligated to overcome the public perception that he has become "a vegetable." As he

explains, "The tone of voice [of gossipers at a café] left no doubt that henceforth I

belonged on a vegetable stall and not to the human race. [. . .] I would have to rely on

myself if I wanted to prove that my IQ was still higher than a turnip's" (Bauby 90yf .

This need to prove himself influences not only Bauby's decision to write the memoir,

but also to begin sending monthly communiqués to his friends and colleagues to

affirm that his new existence is still a form of life (89yf .

Given that this detail is one of several moments of agency that do not appear in

the film, it is important to consider how the memoir's narrative of finding hope in a

severely disabled life is adapted for the cinema, especially since Bauby's death pre-

vented him from having any influence over the production. As James L. Charlton

writes in Nothing About Us Without Us, the question of whose voice has the power to

speak is a central concern for any minority group (3, 93yf L Q G H H G W K L V T X H V W L R Q L V R Q e

of the four main research areas of critical disability theory that Richard Devlin and

Dianne Pothier delineate (3yf 3 U H Y L R X V F L Q H P D W L F D Q G O L W H U D U \ D G D S W D W L R Q V R I D X W R E L -

ographies written by persons with disabilities have elicited such concerns, the life of

Helen Keller being one major example. In her case, the important aspects of her adult

life are often elided or downplayed, such as her sexuality and sole romantic interest, her

involvement in radical politics, and her struggle for financial independence as her

childhood fame declined (Wexler 808yf . L P 1 H L O V H Q D W W U L E X W H V . H O O H U

V S H U P D Q H Q t

infantilization in part to the successful film and stage productions of The Miracle

Worker, which popularized the childhood image of Keller being miraculously inducted

into language and humanity (11yf 2 Q H R I W K H P R V W L P S R U W D Q W F K D Q J H V W K D W R F F X U V Z L W h

the adaptation of Le scaphandre et le papillon is that the film gives away moments of

Bauby's agency to other characters, thus restricting even further his already limited

abilities. In addition to the omission of the monthly bulletin, Bauby also no longer

reads his letters to himself "in a daily ritual that gives the arrival of the post the char-

acter of a hushed and holy ceremony" (91yf R Q H R I W K H I H Z S K \ V L F D O D E L O L W L H V O H I W W o

him - but instead listens to them being read by Céline. These changes are particularly

problematic given that Bauby's ability to read and write are the least affected by locked-

in syndrome, a fact that enables him to continue his former profession as a famous

writer and editor compared with his diminished ability to fulfill the role of a father,

son, or lover. As such, the film manages to render him even less capable. This content downloaded from

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112 Mosaic 4 6/3 ( September 2013yf

Several other changes also indicate that the film version of Le scaphandre et le

papillon has left the realm of autobiography, such as the fictionalization of Bauby s

romantic and family relationships. These alterations include the constant presence of

the mother of Bauby 's children (renamed Célineyf W K H H U D V X U H R I K L V U H D O O L I H O R Y H r

Florence Ben Sadoun (renamed Inèsyf D Q G W K H D G G L W L R Q R I D W K L U G F K L O G V L P S O \ E H F D X V e

the director "could not decide between the three adorable child actors" (Di Giovanniyf .

More importantly, the film reconfigures many of the memoir's moments of humour

or hope in order to focus on the personal tragedy aspect. For example, Bauby's

voiceover while being bathed by hospital staff demonstrates none of the "guilty pleas-

ure from this total lapse into infancy" that the textual Bauby confesses to enjoying on

occasion (24yf $ Q H Y H Q G D U N H U V K L I W L Q W R Q H R F F X U V U H J D U G L Q J W K H I L U V W V H Q W H Q F H K H F R P -

municates to the speech therapist; although this part of the narrative is absent from

the memoir, Ben Sadoun criticizes the film for inserting a declaration of despair. As

she asserts, "Jean-Do never said, T want to die' to one of the nurses [. . .] He said, 'My

mouth is full of chestnuts'" (Di Giovanniyf / D V W O \ W K H G L I I H U H Q W H Q G L Q J V R I W K H E R R k

and film also dramatically alter the mood of the narrative. Both the memoir's final

chapter, "Season of Renewal" (64yf D Q G W K H H Q G L Q J W K D W % D X E \ S U R S R V H V I R U D S O D y

based on his life (139yf H [ S U H V V D G H J U H H R I K R S H I R U V R P H L P S U R Y H P H Q W L Q K L V F R Q G L -

tion. Indeed, the staged concept even plays humorously on the hypothetical audi-

ence's hopes for a full recovery, with a cured Bauby jumping out of his bed before

awakening to exclaim, "Shit, it was only a dream!" (64yf 7 K L V K R S H D Q G K X P R X U D U e

necessarily absent from the film given that it concludes with Bauby on his deathbed

being visited by teary-eyed loved ones. In keeping with the concerns of critical dis-

ability theory, then, the adaptation of the memoir into a film removes some of

Bauby's most important hopes, pleasures, and abilities from the narrative in a way

that overemphasizes the tragic aspect of his experience.

Related to the question of voice, critical disability studies' engagement with

blindness also considers language in terms of its sighted underpinnings. These under-

pinnings are apparent in both image and language, as Jacques Derrida explains in

Memoirs of the Blind: "The whole history, the whole semantics of the European idea ,

in its Greek genealogy - as we see - relates seeing to knowing" (12, emph. Derrida'syf .

Indeed, this association is doubly relevant to the representation of Bauby's disabilities

given the relationship between seeing and knowing presented in the film, as well as

the fact that his "speaking eye" (Corne 223yf E H F R P H V K L V V R O H O R F X V R I F R P P X Q L F D W L R n

with everyone except the audience (or readeryf : K L O H W K H O L Q J X L V W L F F R Q Q H F W L R n

between sight and knowledge is demonstrated at length in the opening paragraph of

Martin Jay's Downcast Eyes (1yf W K H L P S O L F D W L R Q V R I W K H V H P H W D S K R U V

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Tess Jewell 113

examined in more detail by such disability theorists as Julia Miele Rodas and

Georgina Kleege. Working through an extensive catalogue of metaphors involving

blindness, Rodas argues that the blind person exists almost exclusively within

language - within metaphor in particular - since visual impairments exist along a

continuum of experience (115-18yf ) R U L Q V W D Q F H V K H R E V H U Y H V W K H K L J K G H J U H H R I D U E L -

trariness with which the title of "blind" is accorded: "If one's vision is correctable to

within the average range (i.e., 20-20yf R Q H L V Q R W R U G L Q D U L O \ F R Q V L G H U H G E O L Q G D W D O O ,

even though the same deficiency at another time or in another place (without the

ready availability of prosthetic or surgical interventionyf P L J K W E H V H U L R X V O \ G L V D E O L Q J "

(118yf , Q W K L V Z D \ H Y H Q W K R X J K , F R Q V L G H U / H V F D S K D Q G U H H W O H S D S L O O R Q L Q U H O D W L R Q W o

previous conceptions of blindness in film and literature, it is important to recall that

sight remains one of Bauby's most powerful, intact physical abilities. Still, despite the

absence of total blindness, his visual impairment engages with the metaphorical trap-

pings of blindness in its representation. As Rodas explains, blindness being located

conceptually in language rather than in the body allows the condition to take on

meanings independent of physical experience, some of the most common being

blindness as ignorance or deception, vulnerability, rage, and insight (120yf R U Y L V L R Q -

ary powers" [129]yf , Q % D X E \

V F D V H K L V H [ S H U L H Q F H R I E O X U U H G Y L V L R Q D Q G S D U D O \ V L s

takes on all but the first of these connotations, as I will explore in greater detail.

Although Kleege argues in Sight Unseen that these metaphors of blindness both derive

from and reinforce limited cultural understandings of the possibilities available to

blind people (1 1 1-12, 1 18yf , Z L O O V K R Z K R Z W K H U H S U H V H Q W D W L R Q R I % D X E \

V Y L V L R Q D Q d

visual impairment affords him some agency despite its metaphorical trappings and

even as other aspects of the film serve to reduce it.

The scaphandre visual representation et le papillon, of ties the the "seeing film as into knowing" wider cultural metaphor, understandings so important about to Le scaphandre et le papillon, ties the film into wider cultural understandings about

human consciousness, insight, and destiny. Given that blindness has been imagined

historically as a lens through which to understand the human condition, with the

"hypothetical" blind person playing "a useful, although thankless role, as a prop for

theories of consciousness" (Kleege, "Blindness" 180yf Z H F D Q D S S U H F L D W H W K H I L O P

V S R U -

trayal of Bauby's transition from sight to awareness as belonging to this tradition. One

of the most important conventions of blindness in both critical disability studies and

visual culture is that of the blind person possessing insight or visionary powers. As

discussed by Mosche Barasch in Blindness : The History of a Mental Image in Western

Thought , Tiresias is the Greek archetype of the blind seer who gains foreknowledge

(or foresightyf L Q F R P S H Q V D W L R Q I R U K L V O R V V R I Y L V L R Q L W V H O I L Q F X U U H G D V S X Q L V K P H Q W I R r This content downloaded from

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114 Mosaic 4 6/3 ( September 2013yf

witnessing the forbidden (29-33yf + H U H S U H V H Q W V E R W K W K H F R Q F H S W V R I E O L Q G Q H V V D s

insight in addition to guilt or corruption, carrying "the heavy burden of fault, as is

made manifest in his being deprived of one of the basic organic faculties of man"

while being "endowed with the gift of supernatural vision" (28-29yf D G G L W L R Q D O O \ K e

connotes the idea of destiny through his ability to prophesize the future. For all of

these reasons, Tiresias is a perfect figure for the disablement and resulting insight of

Bauby, as Bauby himself describes his condition in the fight of classical punishments

meted out by the gods against the guilty (56yf 6 S H F L I L F D O O \ K H F R Q V L G H U V K L V G L V D E L O L W y

a "finger- wagging moral not to mess with the classics" (Corne 218yf D V K H K D G E H H n

planning a drastically altered rewrite of a classic novel, The Count of Monte Cristo ,

prior to his massive stroke: "I had been toying with the idea of writing a modern,

doubtless iconoclastic, version of the Dumas novel. [. . .] I did not have time to com-

mit this crime of lèse-majesté. As a punishment, I would have preferred [. . .] to copy

out one thousand times T must not tamper with masterpieces.' But the gods of liter-

ature and neurology decided otherwise" (Bauby 56yf , Q W K H V W \ O H R I W K H * U H H N J R G V ,

this punishment is particularly fitting given that The Count of Monte Cristo contains

"literature's first - and so far only - case of locked-in syndrome" in the form of

Noirtier de Villefort (55yf $ O W K R X J K % D X E \

V M R F X O D U V X V S L F L R Q V R I G L Y L Q H U H W U L E X W L R n

do not appear directly in the film, two mentions of The Count of Monte Cristo do

appear to signal this undercurrent and the idea that Bauby was destined for this fife.

Given the newfound outlook on fife and desire to write a memoir that Bauby dis-

covers in his impaired state, we can also consider him an example of the Tiresias

archetype in terms of a man being given artistic vision or insight in exchange for the

loss of his physical sight. Enda McCaffrey locates this transition from sight to insight

in the moment where Bauby's eye is stitched closed. Specifically, she understands the

film as constituting a divide between "the visible" or "visibility" as "a defective and

deceptive representation of reality" set against the true reality of inner sight (347yf .

According to her analysis, vision operates on two distinct levels in the film: "On one

level, impaired vision in conjunction with apoplexy is his double restriction [. . .] but

on another important level his former clarity was itself a form of 'non-seeing' in

which fife passed him by and he it. Therefore this new state of occlusion is a pathway

to an alternative vision through which he can re-evaluate his past fife retrospectively

and make sense of it as an act of writing" (348yf 7 K H U H L V D G D Q J H U K R Z H Y H U L Q E H O L H Y -

ing too strongly in McCaffrey's division between the deception of physical sight and

the transcendence of inner sight. Although she is referring predominantly to the fact

that Bauby was unable to see what mattered in front of him while he was fully abled

and had perfect eyesight, a fact he admits himself (Bauby 91yf W K H E L Q D U \ V K H H V W D E - This content downloaded from

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Tess Jewell 115

lishes between "the deceptive nature of vision and the insight afforded by blindness"

situates Bauby's only partial vision loss in uncertain territory, denying its ability to

perceive the world in a meaningful way (McCaffrey 347yf .

The third Tiresian element of Bauby's narrative is that of prophecy or destiny,

revealed through the gift that Bauby's elderly father sends him: a photograph of

Bauby at Berck-sur-Mer, the location of his hospital, when he was a young child. Not

much is made of this image in the memoir except that it is a fitting gift that brings

back childhood memories (53yf K R Z H Y H U W K H I L O P D G G V W R W K L V F R Q F H S W X D O L ] D W L R Q E y

showing that young Bauby's eyes are closed in the photograph, as if to imply that he

was always destined to end up at Berck-Sur-Mer with his vision obscured. The closed

eyes also recall the image of the blind, supporting McCaffrey's notion that Bauby

spent his life metaphorically blind to the feelings and needs of those around him, only

beginning to see the importance of family and his own humility after his disablement.

This photograph can thus be said to actively set up Bauby as the figure of the blind

seer who has gained insight following vision loss, and who has even predicted this

event in his own future.

As of I have representing suggested blindness thus far, Le and scaphandre disability et even le papillon as it takes draws its from foundation many traditions from the of representing blindness and disability even as it takes its foundation from the

very memoir shown in its painstaking development throughout the latter half of the

film. Moving beyond these traditions, I want to analyze Le scaphandre et le papillon

from a critical disability studies perspective that also takes into account the novel

visual representation of Bauby's impairment. Somewhat ironically, while partial

blindness is possibly the least severe aspect of Bauby's condition, distorted vision is

the film's primary representation of his disability via the "marathonic" use of first-

person perspective (Corne 219yf , Q G H H G W K L V U H S U H V H Q W D W L R Q L V L Q N H H S L Q J Z L W K W K H G L V -

proportionate emphasis on blindness that David Feeney finds in representations of

disability in art and literature due to its aestheticization (95yf 2 I L W V W R W D O U X Q Q L Q J W L P e

of one hundred and twelve minutes, almost the entire first forty minutes of Le

scaphandre et le papillon are presented from Bauby's point of view in the hospital.

During this time, and throughout the subsequent returns to this perspective, various

techniques are used to convey the experience of impaired vision: the camera lens

"blinks," fades in and out of darkness along with Bauby's consciousness, and experi-

ences the blurriness, focussing problems, and retinal after-effects that mimic lived

experiences of imperfect vision. The variety of these techniques leads Jonah Corne to

describe cinematographer Janusz Kaminski as "approaching the mimesis of human

vision with something like the zeal of an early ophthalmological researcher" (220yf . This content downloaded from

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116 Mosaic 4 6/3 ( September 2013yf

Bauby himself helps to set up the foundation for this ocularcentricity in the memoir,

in which he proposes "The Eye" as a possible title for a play based on his life (55yf .

On the one hand, this emphasis on the visual component may simply be attrib-

uted to cinema being understood historically as a visual medium derived from pho-

tography (Bazin 14-15yf $ O W K R X J K S K H Q R P H Q R O R J L V W V V X F K D V 9 L Y L D Q 6 R E F K D F N D Q d

Jennifer Barker have theorized how the viewer's body is "in some carnal modality able

to touch and be touched by the substance and texture of images; [. . .] to experience

weight, suffocation, and the need for air; [. . .] to sometimes even smell and taste the

world we see on the screen" (Sobchack 65yf W K H I D F W U H P D L Q V W K D W V R X Q G D Q G V L J K W D U e

the two senses by which the cinema conveys its entire range of sensory experience.

Since Bauby 's paralysis would prevent the visual representation of his reaction to the

variety of olfactory and tactile experiences detailed in the memoir - "the smell of hy-

ing potatoes" (96yf W K H R Y H U I O R Z R I V D O L Y D W K D W H Q G O H V V O \ I O R R G V P \ P R X W K \f, or

"stuck-together lashes [. . .] tickling my pupil unbearably" (65yf W K H V H E R G L O \ H Y H Q W s

may understandably be omitted from the film's representation of his senses. On the

other hand, given that film also conveys much of its atmosphere and narrative through

sound, we would also expect Bauby's impairment to be represented aurally. However,

although Bauby experiences a "serious hearing disorder" that blocks one ear com-

pletely and "amplifies and distorts all sounds farther than ten feet away" in the other

(103yf Q R V R X Q G G L V W R U W L R Q R F F X U V X Q W L O % D X E \ L V L Q W K H I L Q D O W K U R H V R I G H D W K .

Considering the film's interest in the communication process and the impact this hear-

ing disorder might have had on Bauby's ability to understand staff and visitors, this

detail seems an important omission that would have helped the audience appreciate

the magnitude of the challenges attending the writing and speaking process.

To return to the analysis of the extended first-person perspective and the camera

techniques used, the portrayal of visual impairment diverges from actual human

vision in several ways that contribute to different readings of the film: as metaphori-

cal journey into insight, as the personal tragedy of disability, as reaffirming disabled

sexuality, and as affording Bauby a new kind of agency. To begin with, while Bauby's

blurred vision upon waking from the coma captures the intended meaning of disori-

entation and impairment, it lacks the double vision that would accompany his eyes no

longer working together. As Kaminski states in a production interview on the DVD,

the camera was only ever meant to represent the view of a singular eye ("Cinematic"yf .

This perspective corresponds to the camera's own monocular perspective, and is

based on the idea of Bauby only seeing with one eye himself. Nevertheless, it is pre-

dominantly Bauby's right eyelid and not the eye itself that is malfunctioning, and he

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Tess Jewell 117

within of his right eyelid being stitched shut. While Bauby does not explicitly describe

the state of his visual abilities in his memoir, he does make an oblique reference to

"see[ing] two assholes, not one" when the uncongenial hospital ophthalmologist asks

him whether he sees double (55yf , Q W K L V Z D \ G R X E O H Y L V L R Q V K R X O G D W W H Q G K L V S R L Q t

of view prior to the occlusion of the right eye, similar to the appearance of a 3-D

movie seen without wearing the appropriate glasses or by those who lack stereoscopic

vision. After the occlusion, a binocular representation would need to have part of the

right side blacked out or only showing varying shades of darkness, since receptors in

the right eye would still be sending signals to the brain. The monocularity of this

visual representation thus complicates McCaffrey's metaphorical reading of the film,

in that there is no major visual shift in the depiction of Bauby 's point of view to

accompany the metaphorical shift from sighted ignorance to blind insight that she

describes. As such, this aspect of the camera's perspective can signal its operation out-

side of the traditional metaphors.

The occlusion scene also contributes to the personal tragedy aspect of Bauby's

experience of disability in a way that is intensely phenomenological. In terms of the

visual representation of this event, the camera takes on the point of view of the eye

being stitched closed. Consequently, whereas Bauby would have been able to watch

the ophthalmologist at work through his open left eye, the audience is confined to the

sole, stomach-churning image of Bauby's eyelid being sewn shut in uncomfortable

detail. In keeping with independent horror films such as Zombie 2 and Thriller : They

Call Her One-Eye, this moment in the film concentrates on the physical horror in a

much more visceral and tactile way than Bauby's description in his memoir, which

focuses more on his fear of losing his functioning eye: "When I came to that late-

January morning, the hospital ophthalmologist was leaning over me and sewing my

right eyelid shut with a needle and thread, just as if he were darning a sock. Irrational

terror swept over me. What if this man got carried away and sewed up my left eye as

well, my only link to the outside world, the only window to my cell, the one tiny open-

ing of my diving bell?" (53yf , Q W K H F L Q H P D W L F Y H U V L R Q Z H K H D U % D X E \

V L Q W H U Q D O P R Q R -

logue begging the ophthalmologist not to take away his sight as we watch what seems

to be his total vision being shut in on itself stitch by stitch, until he announces "Je ne

vois plus rien," or "I can't see anything," as if he has been blinded in both eyes, not one.

It is useful here to recall Derrida's observation that "one can lose or gouge out an eye

without ceasing to see, and one can wink with a single eye" ( 127yf 7 R K H L J K W H Q W K H G L V -

comfort of watching this event occur, the camera focuses more clearly on the needle,

thread, and eyelashes than the human eye would actually be able to see so close to the

surface of the eye (Gilbert and Haeberli 59yf , I Z H D J U H H Z L W K 0 F & D I I U H \ W K D W W K L V F O R V X U e This content downloaded from

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118 Mosaic 4 6/3 ( September 2013yf

represents an opening into new awareness, an escape from the previous life that Corne

associates with the acquisition of blink-speaking (226yf W K H Q W K H F D P H U D

V P R P H Q W D U y

break from Bauby's perspective after the occlusion should constitute a marker for his

new, mental freedom. However, given that the break only occurs long enough to reveal

the disfiguring appearance of the stitched eyelid from the exterior before the first-person

perspective is resumed, this moment seems only to emphasize his continued experience

of adversity. Thus, I argue that this scene is intended to evoke the visceral fear of being

blinded, as well as to heighten the audience's pity for Bauby's condition.

In addition to the superhuman ability to focus at the edge of the eyelid, the cam-

era demonstrates other visible superiorities to the human perspective, such as the

ability to zoom in on specific details in a way that the eye cannot. This technique is

often used to emphasize the retention of Bauby's sexuality in his impaired state, in

that he zooms in on certain details of his beautiful female entourage with the focus of

a fashion photographer: lips, breasts, thighs, eyes. This focus is particularly evident

when Bauby meets his physiotherapist and speech therapist - or rather their "angelic

faces and looming cleavages" (Corne 224yf I R U W K H I L U V W W L P H D V Z H O O D V G X U L Q J D T X L H t

moment in his Father's Day celebration with Céline on the beach. As Corne describes

the eroticism of the physiotherapist's second appearance, "during a therapy session in

which she encourages him to 'practice blowing me a kiss,' and demonstrates with a

delicate pursing of her lips, rolling of her tongue, and gentle swallowing motions,

Marie inadvertently conjures for Bauby the image of fellatio, and he inwardly gasps

'no fair' at the exquisitely torturous performance" (Corne 224-25yf 7 K H I D F W W K D W W K H V e

desires are not confined to his escapist fantasies alone constitutes an important affir-

mation of the disabled body as a sexual body, even if it is unable to consummate

them, given that society tends to imagine impaired persons as either asexual or pos-

sessing abnormal impulses (Shakespeare, Gillespie-Sells, and Davies 3-5yf .

Interestingly, one of Bauby's first sexual fantasies includes his new appearance and

damaged eye when he leaves his wheelchair to dance with and kiss the Empress

Eugénie, also supporting the idea that the disabled body can be desirable. However,

this fantasy is also the only one that is cancelled by a sudden return to reality as the

wheelchair is whisked away by an orderly. In a description that recalls the public per-

ception of Helen Keller, Mitchell S. Tepper thus recounts the social oppression people

with disabilities frequently encounter in this area: "Disabled populations are not

viewed as acceptable candidates for reproduction or even capable of sex for pleasure.

We are viewed as child-like and in need of protection" (285yf , Q G H H G D O W K R X J K E O L Q G -

ness and visual impairment seem to be disabilities most compatible with relationships

in film, with examples including Mask , At First Sight , and Dancer in the Darky even This content downloaded from

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Tess Jewell 119

these representations are limited in number. As such, the fact that the camera zoom

singles out erotic images serves as an important marker and affirmation of Bauby's

continued existence as a sexual being.

Bauby's functioning eye can also be understood as a site of ability and agency due

to its role in communication. Indeed, even the frequently self-pitying film version of

Bauby describes his eye as empowering him against his paralysis on par with his

memory and imagination, even though the film privileges the latter two as his pri-

mary sources of pleasure. As Corne notes in "In the Blink of a Speaking Eye: On

Vision and Language in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," the primacy of vision is in

part due to the fact that the eye has become supremely implicated in language, result-

ing in "a novel fusion between words and images" (219yf & U X F L D O O \ K L V D Q D O \ V L V R I W K e

communicative function of the blink contextualizes Bauby's sight in terms of ability

rather than disability. Indeed, the fact that Bauby must speak through blinks is a result

of his loss of voice rather than his loss of vision, with the eye taking on the extra func-

tion of transmission in addition to its previous role in the reception of images. Corne

describes the eye's new embodiment of linguistic signification through a commu-

nicative process designed just for Bauby: "When we see through Bauby's flickering

perspective, through the blinks by which he selects the letters his interlocutors recite

from a special sequence organized according to frequency of use, we encounter the

spectacle of words in the act of their laborious, gestural enunciation. A differently

bodied version of fingerspelling, that technique by which the deaf communicate those

words for which no sign equivalents exist, Bauby's blinks hook directly back into the

circuit of linguistic signification" (223yf $ O W K R X J K L W L V Z R U W K Q R W L Q J W K D W % D X E \

V S U L -

mary form of communication with the audience remains the disembodied voice of

his internal monologue, Corne's analysis of the blink-as-language explores effectively

the active, enabled role of the eye in intra-film communication. Indeed, after the first,

frustrating attempts at using the silent alphabet, the aural monologue disappears

whenever Bauby is speaking with his eye so that the audience is also implicated in the

slow process of communication.

The major concern I have with this aspect of Bauby's ocular agency is that the per-

severance and stamina it requires to communicate and even dictate a memoir become

overshadowed by the difficulty others experience when using this method, particularly

after the camera ceases to align us with Bauby's gaze. Soon after Bauby gains the abil-

ity to speak, the camera technique switches to a conventional third-person perspective.

Corne sees this moment as an important, positive marker of personal development

within the film: "As if preconditioned by his acknowledgment of Henriette's gift of

language, the film finally breaks with Bauby's point of view. At last, the viewer comes This content downloaded from

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120 Mosaic 46/3 (September 2013yf

face to face with the subject in the world rather than the world through the subject.

For the first time we see Bauby staunchly in his surroundings rather than desperately

struggling to make sense of their barrage of stimuli. He is granted a world outside of

himself, and some solid bearings within that larger domain" (226yf + R Z H Y H U L W L s

more accurate to say that only the audience escapes Bauby 's restrictive point of view,

in a way that distances the ability to experience the difficulties and triumphs of com-

municating from his perspective.

This distancing is not solely the result of the perspective change. In Engaging

Characters : Fiction , Emotion and the Cinemay Murray Smith distinguishes between

three levels of the "structure of sympathy," a model of identification or "character

engagement" that we can use to understand how Le scaphandre et le papillon positions

the audience using the different camera perspectives (5yf 7 K H I L U V W O H Y H O U H F R J Q L W L R Q ,

refers to how the audience constructs its understanding of a character based on tex-

tual elements and their historical and cultural context (82yf L Q % D X E \

V F D V H W K L V O H Y H l

includes the stereotypes and metaphors of disability discussed here. The second level,

alignment, involves the camera's perspective and how it situates the audience in rela-

tion to different characters' thoughts and actions (83yf Z K H U H D V W K H W K L U G O H Y H O D O O H -

giance, refers to how "spectators respond sympathetically or antipathetically towards

a character [. . .] determined by an underlying evaluation of the character's moral sta-

tus within the moral system of the text" (62yf + R Z W K H F D P H U D D O L J Q V X V Z L W K % D X E \ L s

important in that our access to Bauby's monologue frequently corresponds with see-

ing through his eyes and disappears when we view him from the exterior. For exam-

ple, when two technicians come to install a telephone, we only hear Bauby's laughing

reply to their insults once we have regained his perspective. Although this scene

emblematizes the difficulty of communication between Bauby and those not

inducted into his private circle, the telephone itself becomes the greatest site of fur-

ther communicative breakdowns, particularly ones in which we are not aligned with

Bauby. In the first of two key phone calls, we listen silently with Bauby as his father

sobs on the other end of the line; the camera even privileges the emotional difficul-

ties being experienced by his father rather than giving us entry into Bauby's feelings.

A similar privileging occurs during an awkward three-way exchange between Céline,

Bauby, and his absent lover Inès, during which the camera focuses on Céline's emo-

tions as she tearfully performs the role of interpreter for the couple. Although we see

Bauby blink out his reply that "Chaque jour je t'attends," we do not know whether he

feels hope, pain, or even anger as Celine suddenly hangs up on Inès in jealousy and

frustration. Even though these scenes are fictionalized and still leave us with sympa-

thy for Bauby, the change to a third-person perspective thus encourages us to feel This content downloaded from

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Tess Jewell 121

greater allegiance to other characters affected by the stroke, in a way that reduces his

centrality to the narrative.

Given these different areas of analysis, we can see how the first-person portrayal

of Bauby's experience of paralysis and visual impairment constructs disability in

complex ways: as simultaneously tragic, reaffirming, and metaphorical, and as both

affording and denying Bauby agency within his struggle. The film's emphasis on

Bauby's attainment of insight following disablement reveals how even a direct repre-

sentation of blinding and visual impairment operates at the level of metaphor, reflect-

ing the filmmaker's need to express Bauby's triumph over a host of more debilitating

conditions through the traditional symbol of the blind seer. In this way, the details of

how visual impairment is imagined onscreen are not as important as the fact that the

film privileges metaphors of blindness rather than engaging directly with forms of

disability that cannot be captured easily (paralysisyf R U F R P I R U W D E O \ V R X Q G G L V W R U W L R Q \f

by an audiovisual medium. Despite this limitation, the way Le scaphandre et le papil-

lon affords Bauby agency through its focus on his remaining ability to communicate

through the first-person perspective suggests new, non-metaphorical avenues for

conceptualizing disability in the cinema.

A tion. few key The questions first is how emerging blindness from can this be represented analysis are to worthy a sighted of further audience considera- in a way tion. The first is how blindness can be represented to a sighted audience in a way

that does not inspire pity or compassion but rather an understanding that there are

many viable ways of engaging visually with the world. Can blindness be imagined

outside of metaphor, or is it at least possible to retain the metaphorical connotations

without depriving the lived experience of blindness of its value and meaning? My

sense of Le scaphandre et le papillon is that it straddles the fence between metaphori-

cal and literal approaches to blindness in a way makes the narrative understandable

in terms of established conventions at the same time as it reaches toward a less sym-

bolic method of representing visual disability. The photograph of a young Bauby

with his eyes closed at Berck-sur-Mer, and McCaffrey's strong emphasis on her

understanding of Bauby as visually impaired, are both evidence of the metaphorical

connotations that attend Bauby's partial blindness, even though the film also plays

with these conventions by providing the camera with perfect vision after Bauby

receives corrective eyeglasses. However, the metaphorical aspect can also be said to

diminish the value of the disabled body in preference for the mind. If, as Corne sug-

gests, the escape from Bauby's impaired perspective into the freedom of memory and

imagination shows his ability to see past his condition, the implication is that there

is no possibility for hope or pleasure within his impaired body, an idea that both the

film and memoir contest in other ways. This content downloaded from

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122 Mosaic 46/3 (September 2013yf

Given the problems with representing blindness, we can also ask how a film

attempting to do so - or any film, for that matter - may be made inclusive for a blind

audience in place of the assumption that all viewers are sighted. The problematic

nature of such assumptions has become more apparent with the increasing perva-

siveness of 3-D cinema, for example, as the prevalence of stereoscopic blindness is

revealed to movie-goers. This problem is related to what degree of influence a visu-

ally impaired person can have over a visual representation of his or her condition, and

there is no one simple answer. While Bauby is the author of his memoir, he is not the

author of the screenplay, nor the filmmaker or producer. As such, his agency as the

narrator of his story is diminished in its cinematic form, even though his work

remains the basis for the film's fiction. On the other hand, there would be no film at

all without the intervention of others after his death. As we have seen, even for figures

such as Helen Keller who have been able to provide consultations during the filming

of their autobiographies, their ability to influence the public's perception of their fives

has remained limited. Various blind painters and cinematographers have recently

proven their ability to produce talented contributions to film and art; nevertheless,

these works' authorship does not ensure that they are available for a non-sighted

audience. Artists such as E§ref Armaģan and Lisa Fittipaldi have demonstrated the

ability to paint without seeing (notably, Armagan has been blind since birthyf .

Simultaneously, visually impaired academics such as Kleege and Rodas have stepped

forward to reveal the metaphorical underpinnings of blindness and return its mean-

ing to those who actually five with it on a quotidian basis. Still, these academics and

artists all share one major element in common with the sighted works they challenge

or disrupt: the audience is still assumed to be sighted. In other words, just as Kleege's

Sight Unseen assumes a sighted readership in its direct addresses (138yf L Q F X U U H Q t

visual media, blindness remains the other offering itself up for consumption by a

sighted audience. This is largely the effect of Le scaphandre et le papillon as well, given

its focus on providing the aesthetic novelty of a first-person perspective to a sighted

audience; however, it remains a valuable, pioneering work in its movement beyond a

simple metaphorical representation of visual disability toward imagining how it

might be experienced as a site of affirmation and agency.

NOTES

1/ See also Derrida (17yf . This content downloaded from

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Tess Jewell 123

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TESS JEWELL is a Ph.D. candidate in the Joint Programme in Communication and Culture at York

and Ryerson Universities. Her current research explores the relationship between blindness and

technology in cyberpunk films, drawing on the fields of visual culture, critical disability studies, and

media theory. This content downloaded from

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