M. Butterfly is a romantic drama directed by David Cronenberg in 1993. This screenplay was based on the written by David Henry Hwang on his play with the same name. Jeremy Irons and John Lone presented as the main characters of this film. The time shown in this film is from 1958, before the outbreak of the Vietnam War; across the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) until 1986, which situated in Beijing, China and Paris. Rene Gallimard as Jeremy Irons, is a diplomat at the French Embassy in Beijing, China, at a time when France and the People’s Republic of China are establishing diplomatic relations. He falls in love with a Chinese opera diva, Liling Song, as recognized as John Lone, when he first time went to an opera and saw this beautiful Chinese “women” on the stage performed a famous play, Madama Butterfly, by Giacomo Puccini. Madama Butterfly describes a love tragedy between a Japanese geisha and an American officer. The Japanese beautiful woman is spoony and chastity. She did not expect her lover already married; at the end she killed herself to accuse the betrayal of love. Rene and the Song’s love story began with Madama Butterfly, however, in M. Butterfly, Song is not the Oriental female who sacrifice for the love. In fact, Song is a Communist agent that disguised by a male. There are varied themes that present in this film, which are stereotypes, ideology, Orientalism, imperialism and sexism in comparison to both East and West cultures. This paper will focus
In David Hwang’s play, M. Butterfly, the story covers the superior attitude that Western white men hold toward Eastern oriental women which is shown through Rene Gallimard’s experiences. Throughout the story, Gallimard constantly brings up his favorite play, M. Butterfly, where an oriental woman, Butterfly, gives up and loses everything including her life for the white man she loves, Pinkerton, and despite Butterfly’s efforts, Pinkerton ends up marrying another woman causing Butterfly to commit suicide. Many white men enjoy this play because it portrays white men to look superior and gives them the assumption that oriental women would do and give up anything for a white man. Gallimard is also one of the white men who believe they are superior to oriental women and that no matter what he does, an oriental woman would never leave his side. Gallimard 's belief of racial superiority is what led him to his control over Song as if Gallimard was Pinkerton and Song was his Butterfly, this fantasy that Gallimard created for himself was false because in reality, Gallimard was the Butterfly and Song was the Pinkerton.
In the Time of the Butterflies is the fictional story about a family but the twist is that they didn’t end up a family in the end. A family, the Mirabals lived in the Dominican Republic. Three of the sisters, out of the four died. It opens in 1994 with a woman interviewing one of the sisters Dede. Asking her questions about her martyred sisters.
The symbolized inferior butterfly has been killed by a more superior human. Killing a butterfly doesn’t usually come to people as a huge occurrence but this really is a small event turned major because it alters the future timeline. The theme of this story is a metaphor on society because in the post-world war era this was an important message, one action from a high ranking official, or even a small person doing a dangerous deed could most definitely cause panic and have far greater impact on society, just as the two World Wars did.
In both Rear Window and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul give a contrasting view of gender roles in relationships to the social norm and give different forms of women in society. With the readings of Hillary Neroni’s The Feminist Theory Julio Garcia Espinosa’s For an Imperfect Cinema and Sergei Eisenstein's Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, I’ll be examining the gender roles within the films of Rear Window and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.
Ang Lee’s Crouching tiger Hidden Dragon is probably one of the most successful foreign films to ever be screened in America. Being the number one film of the year in 2000. On the other hand it was reportedly considered a flop in China. While it was influenced by American film styles, it still kept true to many aspects of its Chinese film heritage. With very apparent love story, it lacked the Extreme amount of Kung Fu fight scenes eastern audiences have come to enjoy. This is a stunning love story between a monk and widow. While it does have its share of over the top fight scenes, when you start to dig deeper the films many social implications become apparent. With ties to subjects such as religion, martial arts, philosophy, love, and even gender issues. This film is a representation of the modern era and how long practiced traditions are being challenged. Each character and plot line allows a glimpse into the Social and Traditional understanding of a culture.
M.Butterfly by David Henry Hqang is a drama full of perception and stereotypes of race and gender. Both of these stereotypes are not those of fact or observation, but rather “othering.” Hwang uses “othering” and the exact opposite in M.Butterfly. Orientalism advocates the idea that the West perceives the East as weak and feminine. In reference to Madame Butterfly, speaking of Butterfly, Gallimard as Pinkerton says, “when I leave, she’ll know what it’s like to have loved a real man” (11). This suggest the idea that there aren’t any “real men” in the East because they’re all supposedly feminine; and although Gallimard isn’t the ideal handsome & perfect man, he believes that he’s desired by all the beautiful Oriental women. He goes on to say that,
However Wai’s ‘ChungKing Express’ was clearly not aimed at the masses, but rather only at the people who have developed a real understanding and appreciation for the art of film. Godard’s ‘A Bout de Souffle’ was also a film which was made to rebel against the old style of French cinema and break the conventions of the film industry. In this way, both of the film directors have something in common with each other. Much of Wai’s work has included themes of time passing and how every human emotion, every material object or specifically tinned food expires. This reoccurring matter isn’t simply an accident but it carries a very significant political message.
M butterfly a play by David Henry Hwang has captivated audiences for many years! I love story with many twist and turns M butterfly describes an affair between a Chinese “women” and a French diplomat that caries on for 20 years only to discover that the Women was actually a man. A spy for the communist party sent to get information on the Vietnam war, but Gillard was to stubborn to see it until Liling the Chinese opera singer is sent to France where she is found to be a man in court. Through this we can see the relationship between Gender, capitalism and ethnicity/ nationality and sexuality.
For the third summary paper, the film being summarized is Butterfly directed by José Luis Cuerda. The film takes place in Galicia (north-western Spain) in the year 1936 as the Spanish civil war is looming over the country. The film follows a boy named Moncho and his teacher Don Gregorio as they develop a close relationship with one another. The film introduces Moncho wide awake in bed while everyone else is asleep. He is excited to go to school for the first time tomorrow and is too tired to sleep because of it. Moncho is introduced as a shy, innocent boy in the beginning of the film. The teacher Don Gregorio is introduced as an innocent, kind teacher who takes Moncho under his wing to teach him about life. The major theme of the film is loss
Gender is an important part of this film. The performance of gender, in particular, is stressed.
In subsequent years following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China came a revolutionary new approach to not only producing films, but also film’s very role in communist society. During this period the state gained complete control of the filmmaking industry, decreeing that the utilitarian functions of art and literature were to become a powerful weapon in serving the revolutionary struggle. In an otherwise artistically stifling period in which socialist realism pervaded all creative outlets, Xie Jin managed to retain some autonomy and emerged as one of the cleverest Chinese directors in the early 1960s. In his 1961 film Red Detachment of Women, Jin provides a classic revolutionary melodrama, yet also displays elements of formalism so that the viewer becomes conscious of the manipulations of his film technique. To analyze this film, I will use Mao Zedong’s 1942 “Talks at the Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art,” clip #10 “Landmark 2,” and clip #6 “We are joining the red army” to elaborate on the major themes and cinematic style that distinguish Xie Jin’s work from his contemporaries.
The last emperor is a very famous film about Pu Yi's life story. The film is directed by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci (1). The film uses time and space staggered dramatic structure, with flashback, narrative, narrative way of telling stories. Respectively, is part of the memory and reality, the two space-time continuous switching, the formation of the rhythm-sharp story. Bernardo Bertolucci, with his unique shooting style, conquered all the audience. In 1988, sixtieth Oscar won the award for best film, best director, best-adapted screenplay, best photography, best art, best costume design, best editing, best sound, the best original music, nine awards. In this article, we will discuss how the Chinese and Western cultures in the film
In the Film The Pianist directed by Roman Polanski. We witness a scene where Szpilman is injured, filthy and starving he rummages around looking for anything to sustain himself. He finds a can of gherkins which he struggles to open he finds some fire stoking equipment and begins opening the can however due to the state of Szpilman he drops the can and the contents falls and drains at the soldier 's feet. In the Hosenfeld scene Points which will be covered are the visual aspects, the aural elements, the mise en scene aspects and post production elements and how all these elements relate to the “big Idea” of having something or someone to hold onto can make you stay focussed and not give up.
The issue of cultural stereotypes and misconceptions thematically runs throughout David Henry Hwang’s play M. Butterfly. The play is inspired by a 1986 newspaper story about a former French diplomat and a Chinese opera singer, who turns out to be a spy and a man. Hwang used the newspaper story and deconstructed it into Madame Butterfly to help breakdown the stereotypes that are present between the East and the West. Hwang’s play overall breaks down the sexist and racist clichés that the East-West have against each other that reaffirm the Western male culture ideas. The stereotypes presented in the play revolve around the two main characters, Gallimard and Song. The play itself begins in the present with Gallimard, a French diplomat who has
It was released in the year 1993, covering the period of the Chinese social upheavals between the 1920s through to the 1970s in the setting of the Beijing Opera. The film raises the attitude of homosexuality in the most painful period of the traditional Chinese history, for the Chinese and Western viewers (Lau 1995, 22). Despite that, China holds a strong homosexual stigma within the twentieth century. According to Lau, this film was an opportunity to stimulate the inherent of the Beijing Opera in relation to the homosexual practices that were tolerated during the era (Lau 1995, 22). Zheng further suggested that the film was also a chance to understand the homophobic anxiety of the historical and political brutality in Chinese history (Zhang 1999, 101). The film attempts to illustrate that the Chinese cultural connections and homosexuality cannot coexist. The main protagonist, Cheng Dieyi, sense of identity is heavily reinforced by the power structure within the environment through harsh symbolic rapes. Lau suggested that the symbolic rapes, such as the loss of finger and getting a pipe forced into the mouth are indications of homosexuality (Lau 1995, 23). According to Zheng, the scene when Dieyi gets raped by the eunuch has exhibited Dieyi’s disruption towards the societal rejection of homosexuality (Zhang 1999, 104). Zheng also stated that Dieyi’s violent