Madame Butterfly (1995)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written/Composed by Giacomo Puccini
Directed by Frédéric Mitterand
Starring Ying Huang, Richard Troxell, Ning Liang, Richard Cowan, Jing Ma Fan, Christopheren Momura, and Constance Hauman
Musical direction by James Conlon

Features:

• Making-of featurette
  
• 16x9 TV enhanced
• Italian with English, French, Spanish, Portugese, Chinese, or Thai subtitles

Rating: NR

Anamorphic: Widescreen 1.85:1

My Advice: Rent it.

Fans of opera will already be familiar with Puccini's masterpiece Madame Butterfly, but for those of you new to the opera scene, here's the story in a nutshell: Lieutenant Pinkerton is an American sailor stationed in Japan. While there, he is charmed by the doll-like artistry that is a young Japanese girl named Butterfly. He essentially buys her, and marries her under Japanese law, but has no intention of ever taking her home to America; he confesses to the American consulate that he will soon take a "proper American wife." Butterfly, for her part, really loves Pinkerton and takes the marriage totally seriously. Pinkerton quickly leaves Butterfly and returns to America--she believes that he will return any day, but when he does return, it is with a new wife in tow and a desire to take their son back to America with him.

Translating a musical medium to film is never easy--the singers must not only be able to pull off operatic music, translating emotion to vocals, they must now also be able to act. Luckily for us, Mitterand was well aware of this new requirement and cast his film admirably. Huang is amazing as Butterfly, going from innocent and love-struck ingenue to world-wise, disillusioned, and resolute in the space of a single aria--pay particular attention to her vocal and emotional range in "Un Bel Di Vedremo." Conlon as Pinkerton is suitably slimy, but yet has a charm that shows why Butterfly believed every word he promised her. All of the actors play their parts equally well, ranging in personality from the greedy Goro to the baffled and grief-stricken Suzuki. Mitterand decided to cast the opera using appropriate races for each character, meaning that Butterfly, her family, and her maid are actually Asian, and Pinkerton, et al, are actually Western. The effect is a heightened realism that also allows the costuming to be a highlight rather than a distraction.

The lines do so much to subtly depict each character's personality, such as where the Consulate says that Butterfly's age of fifteen is an "age for toys," to which Pinkerton replies "and candies," and when Butterfly is "blushing with shame" and yet Pinkerton calls her a "pretty little plaything."

The cinematography is amazing. There are a few long shots of the beautiful Japanese village, but there are also several subtler touches, like the lighting of Butterfly in her white funeral robes holding her tanto before her at the altar. The direction took more care with facial expression, posing, and angles than usual cinema; it was artistic in every sense of the word from start to finish. The spliced in flashbacks to Butterfly's father's ritual suicide perfectly counterpoint the decision facing her now.

Other viewers might object to the inclusion of a bit of wuxia, when Butterfly's priest-uncle crashes the wedding by flying in with two acolytes and curses her. The wire fu would seem out of character if it wasn't such a permanent fixture of Asian cinema; besides, the actors concerned carried off their scenes with a seriousness that smoothly handled any possible discord.

The film and sound quality are superb, as they should be with a production of this sort. The riot of colors in Butterfly's garden is both poignant and lovely, like herself, and the sound is as crisp and perfect as an opera must be to get the full effect of the music.

The features are decent, if nothing amazing. The making-of featurette is interesting, and includes a bit of Ying Huang's audition tape. The menus are lovely, proving a foretaste of the stunning beauty of the film itself. It would have been nice to have had at least a single aria from a stage version to allow comparisons or perhaps a behind-the-scenes look at the orchestra performing the music. I would also have loved to have seen how Gasc made his costume decisions, along with some early conceptual sketches. To go all out, the producers could have included a documentary about period Japan, perhaps explaining the role of the marriage broker, the American navy in relation to Japan, Japanese marriage laws, and Shinto religious beliefs as they affect the story.

Anyone new to opera would be well-served to check out this version. The settings, music, and actors all integrate beautifully to translate the emotions of the story into film. Every detail in this production works together to enable the viewer to feel part of the action--to feel Butterfly's hope and then despair, Pinkerton's callous selfishness and then remorse, etc. The settings are gorgeous without distracting from the action, and the sound and visuals are everything Madame Butterfly should be.