Jean-Dominique Bauby

Jean-Dominique Bauby
Bauby, blinking, to Claude Mendibil, transcribing, 1996
Born	(1952-04-23)23 April 1952 Paris, France
Died	9 March 1997(1997-03-09) (aged 44) Berck-sur-Mer, Nord-Pas de Calais, France
Occupation	Journalist, editor, writer
Notable works	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Jean-Dominique Bauby (French: [ʒɑ̃ dɔminik bobi]; 23 April 1952 – 9 March 1997) was a French journalist, author and editor of the French fashion magazine Elle.

Early life and career[]

Bauby was born in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, and grew up in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, on Rue du Mont-Thabor, north of the Tuileries Garden, living in the building where Alfred de Musset had lived.^[1]

He began his journalism career at Combat and then Le Quotidien de Paris. He received his first byline the day Georges Pompidou died in 1974. At age 28, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of the daily Le Matin de Paris, before becoming editor of the cultural section of Paris Match. He then joined the editorial staff of Elle.^[2]

Memoir[]

On 8 December 1995, at the age of 43, Bauby, "the debonair editor of French Elle magazine",^[3] suffered a cerebrovascular seizure, a type of stroke, while driving his car with his son on a dinner and theater night together.^[4] When he woke up in hospital twenty days later, he found he was entirely speechless; he could only blink his left eyelid. Called locked-in syndrome, this is a condition wherein the mental faculties remain intact but most of the body is paralyzed. In Bauby's case, his mouth, arms, and legs were paralyzed, and he lost 27 kilograms (60 lb) in the first 20 weeks after his stroke. Before his infirmity, Bauby had signed a contract to write a book.^[5]

Despite his condition, which his physician, Christian de Maricourt, said, is not always fatal,^[6] his speech therapist, Sandrine Fichou,^[3] arranged a 26-letter alphabet according to frequency of use (esarintulom...),^[7][8] and for two months, seven days a week, three hours a day, Bauby blinked the 130-page manuscript for the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to Claude Mendibil, a 52-year-old female ghostwriter and freelance book editor, sent by his publisher, Robert Laffont, by blinking when the correct letter was reached by Mendibil slowly reciting the alphabet over and over again using a system called partner-assisted scanning. Bauby composed and edited the book entirely in his head, and dictated it one letter at a time, from his Berck-sur-Mer seaside long-term hospital (fr) bed.^[8]

The book was published in France on Frday, 7 March 1997.^[9] Bauby died suddenly from pneumonia, aged 44, on Sunday, two days after the publication of his book,^[10][11] and he is buried in a family grave at the Père-Lachaise cemetery in Paris, France.^[12]

Films[]

The next Frday, 14 March 1997, after Bauby's death, Bouillon de culture featured Bauby's book, and Jean-Jacques Beineix's short documentary, Assigné à résidence^[13] about Bauby in the Berck-sur-Mer seaside, long-term hospital (fr), with the female writer and editor, Claude Mendibil, and Bauby's partner, Florence Ben Sadoun.^[5]

In 2007, painter-director Julian Schnabel released a film version of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly adapted for the screen by Ronald Harwood. It starred actor Mathieu Amalric as Bauby. Critically acclaimed, the film received many awards and nominations, including the Best Director Prize at Cannes Film Festival and Golden Globe Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director; as well as four Academy Award nominations.

Beth Arnold of Salon.com notes:

The film is said to be "based on a true story," which, of course, is from Bauby's book. The problem is that mixing his factually accurate journey through locked-in syndrome with a personal life that has been fictionalized for film has affected real people who were intensely involved in Bauby's life before and after his accident. Now some of his closest friends feel the movie may forever obscure the truth of his life. They fear this collision between art and reality has created a revisionist history that is accepted by filmgoers around the world, and that this is what will remain in the collective cultural memory. For the first time, they are speaking publicly about it. As one of Bauby's friends says, "There's the Real Story. The Film. And the New Real Story."^[3]

The script written for the film has been criticized by Bauby's closest circle of friends as not faithful to events and biased in favor of his ex-partner.^[3] His late-life partner Florence Ben Sadoun claims to have been a faithful companion, visiting him frequently at the Berck-sur-Mer seaside, long-term hospital (fr), where he lived during his final days. Bauby notes her visits in his memoir.^[14] Sylvie de la Rochefoucauld also claims to have visited him frequently at the hospital.

Personal life[]

Bauby had two children with Sylvie de la Rochefoucauld: a son named Théophile and a daughter named Céleste.^{[15][16][17][4]}

References[]

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Jean-Dominique Bauby

• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - The Movie ::: Kerosene Creative Services :: Miramax
• "Cannes festival screening review of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". Hollywood Reporter.
• Jean-Jacques Beineix. "Assigné à résidence (TV Movie 1997)" – via IMDb.