M. Butterfly is a 1993 American romantic drama film directed by David Cronenberg. The screenplay was written by David Henry Hwang based on his play of the same name. The film stars Jeremy Irons and John Lone, with Ian Richardson, Barbara Sukowa, and Annabel Leventon. The story is loosely based on true events which involved French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and Chinese opera singer Shi Pei Pu.
Plot
René Gallimard is a French diplomat assigned to Beijing, China in the 1960s. He becomes infatuated with a Peking opera performer, Song Liling, who spies on him for the government of the People's Republic of China. Their affair lasts for 20 years, and they subsequently marry, with Gallimard all the while apparently unaware, or willfully ignorant, of the fact that in Peking opera Dan roles were traditionally performed by men.
Cast
Jeremy Irons as René Gallimard
John Lone as Song Liling
Ian Richardson as Ambassador Toulon
Barbara Sukowa as Jeanne Gallimard
Annabel Leventon as Frau Baden
Shizuko Hoshi as Comrade Chin
Vernon Dobtcheff as Agent Entacelin
Production
David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, based on the relationship between Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu, opened on Broadway in 1988, and was critically and financially successful. David Geffen, the play's producer, retained the film rights through his company. He worked with Warner Bros. on the film and it was given a budget of $17-18 million.
Cronenberg stated that "Ironically, if there was ever a film of mine that you could call a sellout, it was M. Butterfly". He read the film script written by Hwang before seeing his for the first time. Geffen initially wanted Peter Weir to direct the film, but Weir declined.
Cronenberg had parts of the script, such as Americans in Vietnam and bombing scenes, removed as he was not interested in it. The first draft of the script featured Gallimard watching the Madama Butterfly opera with his mother as a child. The ending scene between Gallimard and Liling in the police van was created by Cronenberg as he "just knew that it wouldn't play in prison the way it was in the play" as he felt Liling being allowed in Gallimard's cell and stripping would be unbelievable.
The film was mostly filmed in Toronto and was also shot in Beijing, Budapest, and Paris from August to December 1992. It was Cronenberg's first film to be shot outside of Canada. Geffen and Warner Bros. were impressed by the first trailer and the grand scale despite its small budget according to Cronenberg as "for 17 million dollars we got a fucking 50 million dollar epic".
Release
M. Butterfly grossed $1,500,000 in the domestic box office. Cronenberg stated that he was disappointed by the film's reception and felt that it was overshadowed by The Crying Game. He said that the films paralleled each other as both were transsexual, transracial, and transcultural.
Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 45%, based on 22 reviews, and an average rating of 5.60/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "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." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".