There’s no worse imaginable hell than an energetic, healthy mind trapped inside a paralyzed meat slab of a body, but that’s the breaks for French Elle Magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby. True story: In 1995, Bauby suffered a life-altering stroke that paralyzed every muscle in his body – save for his left eye.

Resigned to his ultra-rare “locked-in syndrome,” Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) turns to his memories as a womanizer to buoy his spirits. His imagination plunges him into recollections of his forgetful, estranged father (Max von Sydow, in a poignant role) and to his wife and children who he often neglected for a handful of mistresses on the side.

His piercing wit and fondness for flirtation carries him through the dreadful ordeal, and Bauby’s mischievous internal banter toward his pretty rehabilitation nurses actually distracts him easily.

That is, until speech therapist Henriette (Marie-Josee Croze) charges him with mastering a special eye-blink communication method. The painstaking route inspires Bauby to dictate his entire memoirs via eye blinking into a book. Henritette takes a year to harvest every grueling word by teaching him an alphabet system where he chooses letters by blinking “yes.”

The innovative yet harsh first-person camerawork simply marvels. As Bauby stirs from his three-week-long coma, his dim and unfocused eyes (the camera’s) pan around his hospital room. Likewise, when a surgeon sews Bauby’s right eye shut because he can’t lubricate his corneas anymore, we, terrified, see his inner eye socket stitched shut.

That Butterfly has already garnered four Oscar nods is a testament to both director Julian Schnabel’s novel storytelling and the film’s stunning “eye” cinematography.

Catch The Diving Bell and the Butterfly now at Sunrise Cinemas (4321 NW Pine Island Road, Sunrise). Tickets run $7 to $8.75. Call (954) 748-0333 or visit sunrisecinemas.com.