M. Butterfly
by David Cronenberg
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Annabel Leventon, Barbara Sukowa, Ian Richardson, Jeremy Irons, John LoneDirector: David Cronenberg
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky
Editor: Ronald Sanders
Producer: David Henry Hwang
Writer: David Henry Hwang
Producer: Gabriella Martinelli
Producer: Philip Sandhaus
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 101 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-05-26
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of M. Butterfly
Movie Review: The "Best" of Jeremy Irons
Summary: 5 Stars
This version of "Madame Butterfly" is not the opera type. This is a heart-breaking love for a Man looking for his perfect Butterfly. It first seems like He (Jeremy Irons) has found his heart's desire. But the truth, (ugly as it is) slowly comes out. His life is in ruins, so is his soul.
The last half-hour is not to be missed, no phone calls or computer on. See this actor take you on a trip you will not forgot emotionally. And a ending that is unexpected and leave your soul wounded as well.
The "Best!"
Summary of M. Butterfly
Screen adaptation of the acclaimed Broadway play. A French civil service officer risks and then abandons everything in his life in his obsessive pursuit of an enigmatic Chinese opera diva who harbors a secret.Playwright David Henry Hwang crafted his smash-hit stage play about love and illusion by mixing elements of a true story with echoes of Puccini's Madame Butterfly. When M. Butterfly came to the screen, certain aspects of its dramatic effect would have to be re-thought, a task given to David Cronenberg, still best known in 1993 as a director of brainy sci-fi and horror. Although the resulting film was widely considered a failure at the time, hindsight shows it to be a cool, controlled look at how various kinds of fictions infiltrate peoples' lives. The story takes off with a French diplomat, newly assigned to China in 1964, who falls hard for a performer in the Peking Opera; Cold War espionage enters the scene as well. Most viewers will not be surprised at the biggest twist in the tale, but that doesn't seem to have been Cronenberg's main interest in pursuing this story, and indeed the downplaying of the gimmicky possibilities actually increases the theme of a person (or a nation, given the political backdrop) willing himself to believe in things that are visibly not true. Hwang's script hits a little heavily on the critique of the Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing fantasy of the white man seducing the Asian woman, but the subtext of Sixties-era China and Vietnam certainly adds intrigue. Jeremy Irons is fine as the diplomat, a difficult and obtuse character, and John Lone is clipped and brittle in an equally complex role. A warm film it's not, and its themes are a little to skeletal to come to life. But better than its reputation? Absolutely. --Robert Horton
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