Review of Butterfly`s Tongue

Introduction

You’ve almost certainly never heard of Butterfly’s Tongue, let alone seen it. That’s unfortunate because this is a worthwhile 90 minutes.

Set in a small town in north-west Spain in the summer of 1936 (just before the start of the Spanish Civil War), José Luis Cuerda`s Butterfly`s Tongue is a gentle, evocative rites-of-passage movie.

Seven year old Moncho, comes from a decent family. His father is a tailor with Republican sympathies and his mother is a strict Catholic. We see his traumatic introduction to school life and his touching friendship with the kind schoolteacher. Over the course of a school year, we see Moncho make friends, fall in love (well for a 7 year old, anyway) and learn to respect nature. But, unknown to him, the threat of Civil War is looming.

Video

Set on location around Galica in Spain, the visuals are sumptuous. The villages, woods and lakes are beautifully evocative. Scenes are perfectly composed and the cinematography is excellent.

The transfer is anamorphic and, for a small, low budget, foreign film, I’m sure the transfer isn’t perfect. But, I didn’t care. I was too busy watching the beguiling imagery of this beguiling film to worry about the transfer quality. It was more than good enough.

Audio

Despite having a fairly basic DD 2.0, the soundtrack shines through. The music is variously atmospheric, upbeat and beautiful. It is perfectly reproduced and is always a perfect match for the plot and imagery. The Spanish dialogue track is fine; crisp and clear. Although, unless you are a Spanish speaker, you will concentrate on the subtitles.

Features

Extra features are thin on the ground here. You just get a few text filled screens covering Cast & Crew and some Writer’s and Director’s notes. Given that it is set just as Spain was on the cusp of the Civil War, and this is a period that may not be particularly well understood by some viewers, some extra background would have been useful. No matter, the film doesn’t suffer because of this.

Conclusion

A truly beautiful film. If you don’t have any appreciation for the Civil War, you probably won’t learn much about it through this film. But, that doesn’t matter, you can enjoy this as a warm-hearted, lyrical piece of cinema – a celebration of love and friendship, and a young boy’s discovery of life. However, some knowledge of the historical background will make the film even more poignant.

Performances are uniformly excellent. Manuel Lozano II is especially fine as the 7 year old protagonist. He gives a completely natural and unforced performance.

This is a small foreign film and is reproduced perfectly on this DVD. However, because it is a small, foreign film, few people will see it. And that’s a shame. It is much more worthwhile purchase than most of the Hollywood dross that is (finally) starting to pack the DVD shelves of your local music and video store.

Highly recommended.