M. Butterfly

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Movie
German title M. Butterfly
Original title M. Butterfly
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1993
length 101 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director David Cronenberg
script David Henry Hwang
production Gabriella Martinelli
music Howard Shore
camera Peter Suschitzky
cut Ronald Sanders
occupation
synchronization

M. Butterfly is a film drama directed by David Cronenberg from 1993 with Jeremy Irons and John Lone in the leading roles based on the successful play by David Henry Hwang and his script based on it, which deal very loosely with the Bernard Boursicot case .

action

René Gallimard, in the service of the French Embassy, ​​came to the Chinese capital Beijing with his wife in 1964 . It is the first Western embassy there - France is no longer a colonial power . The ambassador knows him as an honest and hard-working employee, even if not as a lamp or a leader; He is not popular with colleagues because of his diligence.

Song Liling, a diva of the Peking Opera , performs at a reception for foreign diplomats . She captivates as the exotic Madame Butterfly of the Italian Puccini . Gallimard is charmed and speaks to her after the performance. Song reacts cautiously; Occidental prejudices and at best wanderlust speak from the opera, the love death of the oriental woman is a projection of chauvinistic wishful thinking of the western world. Since he is visibly enthusiastic about the art form, she invites him to the Peking Opera. There he marveled at her three weeks later, as the only foreigner in the room. Gallimard falls in love with the singer. At home he tries hard not to let his wife notice. The ambassador valued his new sense of customs and traditions in the host country, and Gallimard was promoted to vice-consul . With renewed self-confidence, he now assists the ambassador in politically sensitive matters, who trusts his judgment. He advised the ambassador that the Chinese people would be open to Western culture because they were drawn to it “deep inside” and he prophesied that the Americans would win in Vietnam .

Meanwhile, the love affair between Song and Gallimard unfolds: Song shows himself to be submissive to her role behavior , only to undress in front of his eyes she still refuses to let him. Gallimard is entranced by his "Butterfly" and his role as a dangerous foreign lover - "white devil". In the following, however, it becomes clear that Song is a spy for the Chinese secret service who is interested in military information about the Americans in Vietnam. When Song Gallimard gives birth to a son, he does not yet know that the Communist Party will deliver him to blackmail him later.

The “ cultural revolution ” does not leave the Peking Opera without a trace: costumes and masks are burned, artists are considered enemies of the state. Even Song, who had already been viewed critically in advance, was sent to a re-education camp . Gallimard is ordered back to France due to his false prognoses. In May 1968 he lived in Paris , now separated from his wife, visibly mourning his time in China . Students with red flags are now demonstrating in the streets and handing out Mao Bibles. One night, Song suddenly appears in front of the door of his apartment. Gallimard promises her to marry her on the spot.

Some time later he was arrested on suspicion of espionage . It becomes clear that the Chinese government blackmailed him with what appears to be his son, whose father he believes he is. In addition, another lie is revealed: When Song is brought before the court - with short hair and in a suit - Gallimard realizes that Song is a man. “Did he know you were a man ?” The judge finally wants to know. Song then: “You know, Your Honor, he never asked.” Gallimard and Song are in private during the prisoner transport. Song undresses for the first time in front of Gallimard. In disbelief, this song touches his face and realizes that it is the same soft lips that he loves so much. However, he couldn't love a man. Song is deeply shocked by this.

Gallimard goes to prison as a source of a foreign intelligence service, Song is expelled.

In a monologue in the prison auditorium , Gallimard presents himself as “Madame Butterfly” in front of the enthusiastic inmates. Finally, he cuts his carotid artery with his make-up mirror and bleeds to death in front of crowded rows.

synchronization

The synchronization was produced by Magma Synchron in Berlin. Joachim Kunzendorf took over the writing and direction .

role actor speaker
René Gallimard Jeremy Irons Randolf Kronberg
Agent Etancelin Vernon Dobtcheff Helmut Gauss
Ambassador Toulon Ian Richardson Lothar Blumhagen
Embassy colleague Richard McMillan Udo Schenk
Mrs. Baden Annabel Leventon Marianne Gross
Comrade Chin Shizuko Hoshi Barbara Adolph
Jeanne Gallimard Barbara Sukowa Arianne Borbach
Song Liling John Lone Conny Diem

reception

  • “A wonderfully staged drama with an excellent cast, the focus of which is the great dream of a lost man. Based on an authentic case, the film lives from the inner horror of the story, which inexorably strives for tragedy. ”- Lexicon of international film
  • "(...) [...] doesn’t make the slightest effort to hide from the start that the actor John Lone is hidden in the mask of the singer Song Liling […] is the illusion that has tied them together for two decades as ridiculous as it is harrowing. […] The misfortune of Cronenberg's film is that it has to carry along everything that has inspired it: the authentic case, the Broadway melodrama, the Puccini opera, the sensational trial and the cultural revolution. So he gets bogged down. ”- Andreas Kilb, Die Zeit
  • "Cronenberg's idea of ​​a dramaturgically useful situation is also the transformation of a man into a giant fly [...] Irons plays with such extensive devotion that it becomes impossible not to share his bizarre point of view [...] as strange as all of Mr. Cronenberg's works , but sometimes flatter and more ambiguous than is good for him. Mr. Lone's embodiment of Liling is most effective when the unnaturalness is exposed. ”- Janet Maslin , The New York Times
  • "Two fundamental problems with David Cronenberg's catastrophic adaptation of 1993: the unsuitability of a premise according to which actors and audience no longer share the same space, and the incorrect cast." - Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
  • “The relationship between being and appearance, the obsessional neuroses and [sic] projections of the over-civilized psyche already occupied him in his early horror films. [...] Finally, cameraman Peter Suschitzky, with his sultry, romantic, artificially lit shots, provides the actors with the theatrical entrances and exits the right setting: 'Oriental' nights in lapis lazuli blue, purple and gold. ”- Sabine Horst, Frankfurter Rundschau
  • "(...) nothing can cancel out the unattractive impression of artificiality" - Todd McCarthy, Variety
  • “(...) erotic impulses are always serious things for those affected, no matter how hilarious they may seem to the observer." - Roger Ebert

Chow explains: “It is precisely because of the stereotypical nature that we can approach it much more as a myth ” and, as is often the case with the director, this type of “ anti-orientalist discourse” involves a complete deconstruction of people. Loosely based on Lacan , she states: "The essential ingredient in love is always the wrong perception."

Some critics would rather Jaye Davidson of The Crying Game and Leslie Cheung in Farewell My Concubine kept in the title role for conceivable. Andreas Kilb spoke at the time on the occasion of the film about the incidents and Joyce Wadlers tell-all book "Liaison" concisely a " trashy novel , the writing life."

Background and miscellaneous

Bernard Boursicot was sentenced to six years in prison in 1986. Shi Pei-Pu was pardoned by François Mitterrand in 1987 . Boursicot survived the suicide attempt.

The Pulitzer Prize -nominated and Tony Award -prämierte piece of David Henry Hwang ran 777 performances long on Broadway in Eugene O'Neill Theater from 1988 to 1990, there with John Lithgow and BD Wong . To date it has been played in over thirty countries, in 1989 in London with Anthony Hopkins in the lead role.

The film was shot in Budapest , Toronto , Paris , the Great Wall of China and Beijing . The film was premiered in the Federal Republic of Germany on December 9, 1993, on June 10, 1994 it was shown on video and first broadcast on television on June 29, 1995 on premiere . Box Office Mojo reported October 11, 2008 domestic total revenue ( Total Lifetime Large / Domestic ) of slightly less than 1.5 million US dollars .

The theme of the butterfly can also be related to Zhuangzi's butterfly dream .

Cronenberg himself: “M. Butterfly is about more than the clash of two cultures. It's about the impossibility of really knowing another person. [...] And yet we experience how Gallimard created a woman to love out of little more than his own need and his imagination ; he only knew the dream of his 'Butterfly'. "

If one only starts from the external appearance, the relationship between Bernard Boursicot (in the film: Gallimard) and Shi Pei-Pu (in the film: Song) can be interpreted as homosexual. From a medical point of view, Shi Pei-Pu could have been a woman with AGS (Adrenogenital Syndrome) or with an androgen-producing tumor. Shi Pei-Pu may also have had a late-onset AGS with later masculinization symptoms.

literature

  • Rey Chow: The Dream of a Butterfly . In: Hwa Yol Jung (Ed.): Comparative Political Culture in the Age of Globalization: An Introductory Anthology . Lexington Books, 2002, ISBN 0-7391-0318-0 ( GoogleBooks ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Monsieur Butterfly . In: Die Zeit , No. 48/1993, p. 94
  2. ^ Men among themselves: "M. Butterfly ”as a film . ( Memento of the original from April 23, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: FAZ , December 9, 1993, quoted in n. davidcronenberg.de. [...] disappears [...] without fuss or explanation @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.davidcronenberg.de
  3. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | M. Butterfly. Retrieved September 13, 2017 .
  4. ↑ a b M. Butterfly. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed December 29, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ↑ a b Andreas Kilb : Confusion of feelings . In: Die Zeit , No. 50/1993, pp. 64, 66, 68
  6. ↑ Likewise: Chris Hicks: M. Butterfly. (No longer available online.) In: Deseret News. October 15, 1993, archived from the original on December 1, 2008 ; accessed on October 10, 2008 (English): "It's impossible not to believe that he believes it" Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / deseretnews.com
  7. ^ A b Janet Maslin : M. Butterfly (1993) - Seduction and the Impossible Dream. In: The New York Times . October 1, 1993, accessed on October 10, 2008 (English): “Cronenberg's idea of ​​a dramatically viable situation is a man's metamorphosing into a giant fly […] Mr. Irons performs with such complete conviction that it becomes impossible not to understand his character's bizarre point of view […] as idiosyncratic as Mr. Cronenberg's work is always, is sometimes too flat and ambiguous for its own good. Mr. Lone's portrait of Liling is most effective when its unnaturalness is clear "
  8. ↑ Jonathan Rosenbaum: M. Butterfly. In: Chicago Reader. Retrieved October 11, 2008 : "The fundamental problems with David Cronenberg's disastrous 1993 adaptation […] are twofold: the unsuitability of such a premise for film, where the actors and audience no longer share the same space, and the miscasting "
  9. ^ Sabine Horst: passion drama with virgin birth. (No longer available online.) In: Frankfurter Rundschau . December 9, 1993, archived from the original on April 23, 2008 ; accessed on October 12, 2008 (from davidcronenberg.de). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.davidcronenberg.de
  10. ^ Todd McCarthy: M. Butterfly. In: Variety . September 10, 1993, accessed on October 11, 2008 (English): "nothing manages to disguise the unfortunate feel of artifice"
  11. ^ Roger Ebert : M. Butterfly. In: rogerebert.suntimes.com. October 8, 1993, accessed on October 11, 2008 (English): "erotic impulses are always completely humorless to those who hold them, even though they might seem hilarious to the observer"
  12. ↑ Chow, p. 111 f., P. 114, p. 116.
  13. ^ Richard Corliss: Betrayal in Beijing. In: Time . October 4, 1993, accessed October 11, 2008 .
  14. ^ Reuters : France Pardons Chinese Spy Who Pretended to Be Woman. In: query.nytimes.com. April 10, 1987, accessed October 12, 2008 .
  15. ↑ Wadler, see web links.
  16. ↑ M. Butterfly. In: Internet Broadway Database . The Broadway League, accessed October 11, 2008 .
  17. ↑ a b c press release, see web links.
  18. ↑ IMDb , see web links.
  19. ↑ M. Butterfly. In: Box Office Mojo, LLC. Retrieved October 11, 2008 .
  20. ↑ Jeanne Dericks-Tan, Gerold Martin: Onan's children. Things worth remembering about sexuality and reproduction from history and medicine . Abadi Verlag, Alzenau 2009, ISBN 3-00-006497-4 , pp. 140-142