Who is the diving bell and the butterfly about

Each night, he would edit his thoughts in his head, and compose and memorise sentences so that when Mendibil arrived in the morning he could dictate his latest installment. Just two days after the French publication of his book, Jean died from pneumonia — with no inkling he had just penned an international best-seller.

There is so much to do. Previous Back. Video player This dialog pays embedded videos in a popup window. The true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who suffers a stroke and has to live with an almost totally paralyzed body; only his left eye isn't paralyzed.

Forty-three year old Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby - Jean-Do to his friends - awakens not knowing where he is. He is in a Berck-sur-Mer hospital, where he has been for the past several weeks in a coma after suffering a massive stroke. Although his cognitive facilities are intact, he quickly learns that he has what is called locked-in syndrome which has resulted in him being almost completely paralyzed, including not being able to speak.

One of his few functioning muscles is his left eye. Among his compassionate recuperative team are his physical therapist Marie, and his speech therapist Henriette.

Henriette eventually teaches him to communicate using a system where he spells out words: she reads out the letters of the alphabet in descending order of their use in the French language, and he blinks his functioning left eye when she reaches the appropriate letter. Although frustrating at start, he learns to communicate effectively but slowly using this method, so much so that with the help of Claude, a full time translator, he decides on the monumental and seemingly impossible task to keep to his pre-injury commitment of writing a book, changing its focus to life in his current state.

The true story of year-old magazine editor Jean-Dominique Beauby who after suffering a stroke is found to have locked-in syndrome, where he is paralyzed from the neck down. He can see and hear but cannot speak, communicating only by blinking his left eye for yes or no. In France, publishers own the book and film rights, but after Bauby's death, the rights went to his children.

De la Rouchefoucauld was consulted in the making of the film, much to the chagrin of his inner circle of friends, including the photographer Brice Agnelli and writer Bernard Chapier.

They knew the truth and were appalled at the way Ben Sadoun was portrayed. It must have been intensely painful for Ben Sadoun to see her real-life love story, which was so poignant and so loving, turned into a cinematic mess of lies. Furthermore, the film, made by a painter turned director, is stunningly beautiful: full of greens, blues, and the colours of the sea.

The sets are breathtaking. It was nominated for Oscars, won a Golden Globe and a Bafta. It was him! And it was widely acclaimed as a work of genius. For a film critic like Ben Sadoun, it must have been unbearable. Valerie Toranian, the editor of Elle, was so offended by how Ben Sadoun was portrayed that she did not allow filming at their offices and the magazine did not officially review the film.

Two years on, Ben Sadoun is now happily married to an actor whom she does not want to discuss. I still loved him. She has written La Fausse Veuve not as an act of revenge, she says, but because friends of Bauby were so annoyed at the inaccuracy that they encouraged her.

The result is not a memoir. Nor is it a novel. It is something in between - 'Auto fiction, quite common in France'. There are no names to the lead characters, no indications that it is a true story - unless you know what really happened. After Bauby 's death in , Ben Sadoun took to her bed for three months.

I slept,' she says. Friends took care of me. But gradually, she revived. She raised her children, went to work for another film magazine - immersed herself in her writing. Eventually, she met another man and finally she began to put pen to paper about Bauby. When she saw the film, she was startled, upset, 'disgusted', she says. But she made a decision not to let it colour her memories. Instead she has turned the sadness into a beautiful book, full of longing, life and love.

And, above all, dignity. Who, I ask, is the fausse veuve? Is it de la Rouchefoucauld, portrayed as the grieving widow in Schnabel's film, or is it Ben Sadoun, who never got to be the widow, but was, in effect, the real one? It is an unusual love story, but an exceptionally beautiful one, and most importantly - it is true.

When stroke victim Jean-Dominique Bauby's book was turned into a Bafta-winning film, the world wept for his tragic on-screen wife.