Madame Butterfly (1932)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Madame Butterfly |
| Original title | Madame Butterfly |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1932 |
| length | 83 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Marion Low |
| script |
Josephine Lovett , Joseph Moncure March |
| production | Paramount Pictures |
| music | William Franke Harling |
| camera | David Abel |
| occupation | |
| |
Madame Butterfly is a US-American literary film adaptation by Marion Gering from 1932. The basis of the film is the drama of the same name by David Belasco , which was also the basis for Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly .
action
Cho-Cho San has to help support the family after the suicide of her father, a samurai . She is trained to be a geisha in Nagasaki and quickly receives the prospect of marrying a significant member of the upper class. A short time later she is to meet this gentleman alone for the first time. On that day, the young lieutenant BF Pinkerton is in Nagasaki for the first time and accompanies his friend Barton to the very house where Cho-Cho San works as a geisha. Pinkerton falls in love with the young woman, but his presence pisses off her potential future husband. More out of a remorse than conviction, Pinkerton marries Cho-Cho San, but swears to be loyal to her until death.
A few weeks later - Cho-Cho San has spent the time being Pinkerton's ideal and obedient wife - she not only finds a photo of the beautiful Adelaide in Pinkerton's suitcase, but also learns, rather by accident, that Pinkerton's fleet is leaving Nagasaki the next day becomes. Pinkerton promises to return to her in the spring.
Spring arrives and Cho-Cho San becomes the mother of a little boy, but his father Pinkerton knows nothing of his existence. She's waiting for him, but he's not coming back. After two more years, Cho-Cho San turns to the American consul. He knows that Pinkerton is now married to Adelaide, but hides this. He telegrams Pinkerton to come and see him when he is about to go ashore in Nagasaki.
Cho-Cho San is delighted to learn of Pinkerton's arrival in Nagasaki. However, he came to Japan with Adelaide and has no inkling of his first wife's longing. Cho-Cho San stays at the window all night waiting for him. Only the next day, at the urging of the consul, he appears at her place in order to finally part with her. She does not tell him that he has a son. After Pinkerton leaves, Cho-Cho San has her son brought to her grandfather, where he is to be trained as a samurai like her father. Then she stabs herself with the same blade that her father used to commit suicide.
production
Madame Butterfly was based on the drama Madame Butterfly by David Belasco , who in turn dramatized a story by John Luther Long . Based on the drama, Josephine Lovett and Joseph Moncure March wrote their script for the film. Although there are only loose references to the opera by Puccini and there is almost no singing, parts of the film are accompanied by music from the opera.
Madame Butterfly had its premiere on December 30, 1932.
criticism
The film service criticized Madame Butterfly as a "dialog-heavy adapted tragedy":
“Cary Grant plays the 'womanizer' who, with his naïve manner, ignores the cultural peculiarities of the Japanese and ultimately makes an unsympathetic womanizer. The film makes use of the dramatic music of Puccini, but otherwise weights the role structure in such a way that the dedicated supporting role Pinkerton moves more into the center. Dramaturgically he celebrates the tragically ending melodrama, underpinned with kitschy-pleasing exoticism. "
Web links
- Madame Butterfly in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Madame Butterfly in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on April 14, 2012