M. Butterfly | Full Movie | Movies Anywhere

Name: M. Butterfly
Released: 1993-10-1
Cast: Jeremy Irons, John Lone, Barbara Sukowa, Ian Richardson

M. Butterfly

R
1h 43m
1993

41%

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Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons stars as a French diplomat who falls in love with a Beijing Opera singer--who is not what the Frenchman thinks "she" is--in this tale of love and betrayal. Based on actual events. Adapted for the screen by David Henry Hwang from his Tony Award-winning play.

Director:

David Cronenberg

Producer:

Gabriella Martinelli, David Henry Hwang, Philip Sandhaus

Writer:

David Henry Hwang

Cast:

Jeremy Irons, John Lone, Barbara Sukowa, Ian Richardson

Rotten Tomatoes® Score

TOMATOMETER®

41%

Critics Consensus: David Cronenberg reins in his provocative sensibility and handles delicate material with restraint, yielding a disappointing adaptation that flattens M. Butterfly into a tedious soap opera.

Reviews

Southern Voice (Atlanta)

Steve Warren

On stage, M. Butterfly was quite possibly the best drama since Equus. On screen, it's an embarrassment and a bore.

On screen, under the caring but superficial direction of David Cronenberg, the realism of the camera cruelly exposes all the pretenses of this play about a French diplomat who loves a man posing as a woman.

When John Lone parades around in mascara and speaks in an asexual monotone, the film audience discovers itself staring at John Lone's whiskers underneath his makeup

The problem is not simply that Lone's drag wouldn't fool a baby. In the magnified intimacy of the camera's eye, it's clear Hwang doesn't really know who these unlikely lovers are. Metaphors can't carry a movie-flesh and blood is what's required.

April 16, 2018

FULL REVIEW