The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: Cinecittà Summary & Analysis

Bauby describes the Berck hospital where he is a patient. It has a “massive, overelaborate silhouette” and “high redbrick walls typical of northern France.” Built originally as a refuge for sick children who needed a healthier climate than that of the hospitals in Paris, the hospital’s façade still bears the words “City of Paris” even though it is far from the city in France’s northern Pas de Calais region. The interior of the hospital is a confusing maze, and during wheelchair outings around the building and the grounds, Bauby often encounters patients who have found themselves lost.

On one of Bauby’s very first wheelchair “expeditions,” shortly after awakening from his coma, he spotted a tall red-and-white striped lighthouse at the edge of the hospital grounds. Bauby often asks to be wheeled to “Cinecittà,” the nickname he has given to the “perpetually deserted terrace” of one of the hospital’s wards, so that he can look out at the lighthouse and the sea beyond. Cinecittà is the name of the largest film studio from Europe—and from the balcony he’s given this name to, Bauby looks out at the town below and directs movies in his head, waiting for the setting of the sun and the “hope-filled beams” of the lighthouse to shine.