M. Butterfly

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M. Butterfly

R

1993

1h 40m

Drama

Romance

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

39%

Tomatometer

23 Reviews

67%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) is a diplomat from France who has been sent to Beijing. While acclimating to life in China, Gallimard meets and becomes enamored of Song Liling (John Lone), an opera singer who wears traditionally ornate dress and makeup. The two begin a relationship, but, unfortunately for Gallimard, there is much about Song that he doesn't know. Among the revelations that Gallimard must contend with is the discovery that his lover is a man.

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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.

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David Ansen

Newsweek

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.

Oct 18, 2008

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Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

All of this is interesting, in its way, and yet the film of M. Butterfly does not take hold the way the stage play did.

Rated: 2.5/4

Jan 1, 2000

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Joe Lipsett

Anatomy of a Scream Podcast Network

Jeremy Irons and John Lone are both doing great work, but the film's reticence to engage with its gender, queer, and even political themes is frustrating. The film is a bad marriage of director and material.

Rated: 2.5/5

May 16, 2024

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Steve Warren

Southern Voice (Atlanta)

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

May 9, 2023

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Malcolm Johnson

Hartford Courant

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.

Apr 16, 2018

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Paul Brenner

Filmcritic.com

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

Rated: 1.5/5

May 17, 2009

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Alec B

It is fair to say that something is perhaps lost in translation from the stage to the screen (intimacy for one) but I think there's a lot of criticism directed at the movie in bad faith. Post The Crying Game the "twist" doesn't make much sense as a major plot point and Cronenberg goes the more difficult and interesting route of having the characters subtly acknowledging the truth.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/21/24

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Timur B

ok. the story is good. theatre in theatre.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/11/23

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David W

Cronenberg manages to deliver a lot with the resources and material he had to work with. The story is memorable mostly for its strangeness. I would only watch this again if there were nothing better to choose from.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/24/24

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Joel G

having just watched the film, i am trying to understand what it's actually about and why the characters are both blind and deaf to the world they've been dumped in. the first time that gallimard sees that his butterfly is a man in a suit, it's so without expression or reaction, and the scene that follows between the two is baffling, as though the lack of clarity is added to by the lack of insight in the writing. i'd be very eager to hear from hwang what went wrong, what he may have imagined that didn't make it into the final cut.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

05/27/23

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thiago r

Final extremamente surpreendente. Não esperava nem de longe um plot daquele.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

The greatest 01 hour: and 40 minutes ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

Full Review

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David Cronenberg

Director

Jeremy Irons

René Gallimard

John Lone

Song Liling

Ian Richardson

Ambassador Toulon

Barbara Sukowa

Jeanne Gallimard

Annabel Leventon

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Synopsis

René Gallimard (Jeremy Irons) is a diplomat from France who has been sent to Beijing. While acclimating to life in China, Gallimard meets and becomes enamored of Song Liling (John Lone), an opera singer who wears traditionally ornate dress and makeup. The two begin a relationship, but, unfortunately for Gallimard, there is much about Song that he doesn't know. Among the revelations that Gallimard must contend with is the discovery that his lover is a man.

Director: David Cronenberg
Producer: Gabriella Martinelli
Screenwriter: David Henry Hwang
Production Co: Geffen Pictures, Miranda Productions Inc.
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Romance
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 29, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $1.0M
Runtime: 1h 40m
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

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