Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.
Sorry, folks… there are simply too many great films streaming this week to post an image for them all, but that’s a good thing, eh? You’ve got your movie watching work cut out for you, due in great part to Miramax releasing damn near their entire catalog of films on one day!
B. Monkey (1999)
Streaming Available: 05/01/2011
Director: Michael Radford
Synopsis: Good-hearted schoolteacher Alan Furnace (Jared Harris) desperately wants some excitement in his life — and he may just get some. One lonely night at a London bar, Alan spies the raven-haired beauty Beatrice (Asia Argento) arguing with two friends, Paul (Rupert Everett) and Bruno (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Beatrice quickly befriends Alan and...
Sorry, folks… there are simply too many great films streaming this week to post an image for them all, but that’s a good thing, eh? You’ve got your movie watching work cut out for you, due in great part to Miramax releasing damn near their entire catalog of films on one day!
B. Monkey (1999)
Streaming Available: 05/01/2011
Director: Michael Radford
Synopsis: Good-hearted schoolteacher Alan Furnace (Jared Harris) desperately wants some excitement in his life — and he may just get some. One lonely night at a London bar, Alan spies the raven-haired beauty Beatrice (Asia Argento) arguing with two friends, Paul (Rupert Everett) and Bruno (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers). Beatrice quickly befriends Alan and...
- 4/29/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Film review: 'The Butterfly'
In "The Butterfly", Jose Luis Cuerda takes a well-worn though resilient theme -- the coming-of-age memoir -- and turns it into a moving portrait of a world on the brink of extinction. Its placid surface belies the psychological turmoil developing underneath. And the political backdrop of the Spanish Republic on the verge of tearing itself apart in civil war gives the bond slowly forged between a young, frightened schoolboy and his nature-loving teacher a compelling urgency.
This 1999 film, which played at Sundance as "Butterfly Tongues", garnered 13 Goya nominations, including best picture, in its native Spain. The haunting tale of human frailty should also win fans in urban markets Stateside as well.
Rafael Azcona's screenplay is based on three Manuel Rivas short stories related to his childhood in a remote village in Galicia. The time is 1936, when passions run high as the village -- and the entire country -- is divided between loyalists to the Republican government that replaced the monarchy and the fascists under Francisco Franco determined to wrest control from those they consider communists and atheists.
But 7-year-old Moncho (Manuel Lozano) has more immediate concerns. His first day at school fills him with terror. Tales of the schoolmaster's physical abuse of students have already reached his tender ears. But instead of a tyrant, he is confronted with the gentle and compassionate Don Gregorio (played by legendary Spanish actor Fernando Fernan-Gomez). The teacher even visits Moncho's home to coax the anxious youngster to come to his class after the boy runs away.
Thus is established a mentorhood and a friendship in which the aging man teaches the boy to open himself to the splendors of the natural world. Indeed, as spring approaches, Don Gregorio even removes his classroom to the idyllic countryside where the children can experience life's mysteries firsthand.
There are other mysteries that face Moncho. One concerns his father (Gonzalo Uriarte), the village tailor and the daughter he sired prior to wedlock. Another occurs when Moncho and his older brother (Alexis de Los Santos), a member of a local band, travel to another town. His brother becomes instantly smitten with the wife of a gruff though loquacious peasant, a woman who is unmistakably Chinese.
Adhering strictly to the 7-year-old's point of view, though, the film never fully solves or explains these human mysteries. It's refreshing for once not to learn the "back story" for all of a film's characters, as would be required of any studio-produced film. Things are not always clear-cut for this child, nor should they be. His world will only grow more confusing.
"Butterfly" is filled with nostalgia for a time when teaching was passionate and encouraging and when political or religious differences between people were treated with humor rather than righteous indignation.
It is a world soon to be crushed by those who cannot abide those differences. Every moment is therefore infused with melancholy for the impending loss of something tender, fragile and (for Spanish citizens of that era) bewildering -- a thing called freedom.
This sentiment is caught so well in the acting of Fernan-Gomez, who is at once physically fragile yet intellectually vigorous, emphasizing Don Gregorio's childlike wonder at a world filled with butterflies, poetry and love. The film's shattering conclusion, where to save their own lives villagers must turn on fellow residents, unforgettably evokes the catastrophe of war on the human soul.
Cinematographer Javier Salmones' lighting beautifully articulates the rural charms of Galicia, favoring earthen tones and sharply delineating a world that seems almost painterly.
THE BUTTERFLY
Miramax Films
Sogetel
Las Producciones del Escorpion Voice Group with the collaboration of Canal Plus and the participation of T.V.E.
Director: Jose Luis Cuerda
Screenwriter: Rafael Azcona
Based on short stories by: Manuel Rivas
Executive producers: Fernando Bovaira,
Jose Luis Cuerda
Director of photography: Javier Salmones
Production designer: Josep Rosell
Music: Alejandro Amenabar
Costume designer: Sonia Grande
Editor: Nacho Ruiz Capillas
Color/stereo
Cast:
Don Gregorio: Fernando Fernan-Gomez
Moncho: Manuel Lozano
Rosa: Uxia Blanco
Ramon: Gonzalo Uriarte
Andres: Alexis de Los Santos
Running time - 96 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
This 1999 film, which played at Sundance as "Butterfly Tongues", garnered 13 Goya nominations, including best picture, in its native Spain. The haunting tale of human frailty should also win fans in urban markets Stateside as well.
Rafael Azcona's screenplay is based on three Manuel Rivas short stories related to his childhood in a remote village in Galicia. The time is 1936, when passions run high as the village -- and the entire country -- is divided between loyalists to the Republican government that replaced the monarchy and the fascists under Francisco Franco determined to wrest control from those they consider communists and atheists.
But 7-year-old Moncho (Manuel Lozano) has more immediate concerns. His first day at school fills him with terror. Tales of the schoolmaster's physical abuse of students have already reached his tender ears. But instead of a tyrant, he is confronted with the gentle and compassionate Don Gregorio (played by legendary Spanish actor Fernando Fernan-Gomez). The teacher even visits Moncho's home to coax the anxious youngster to come to his class after the boy runs away.
Thus is established a mentorhood and a friendship in which the aging man teaches the boy to open himself to the splendors of the natural world. Indeed, as spring approaches, Don Gregorio even removes his classroom to the idyllic countryside where the children can experience life's mysteries firsthand.
There are other mysteries that face Moncho. One concerns his father (Gonzalo Uriarte), the village tailor and the daughter he sired prior to wedlock. Another occurs when Moncho and his older brother (Alexis de Los Santos), a member of a local band, travel to another town. His brother becomes instantly smitten with the wife of a gruff though loquacious peasant, a woman who is unmistakably Chinese.
Adhering strictly to the 7-year-old's point of view, though, the film never fully solves or explains these human mysteries. It's refreshing for once not to learn the "back story" for all of a film's characters, as would be required of any studio-produced film. Things are not always clear-cut for this child, nor should they be. His world will only grow more confusing.
"Butterfly" is filled with nostalgia for a time when teaching was passionate and encouraging and when political or religious differences between people were treated with humor rather than righteous indignation.
It is a world soon to be crushed by those who cannot abide those differences. Every moment is therefore infused with melancholy for the impending loss of something tender, fragile and (for Spanish citizens of that era) bewildering -- a thing called freedom.
This sentiment is caught so well in the acting of Fernan-Gomez, who is at once physically fragile yet intellectually vigorous, emphasizing Don Gregorio's childlike wonder at a world filled with butterflies, poetry and love. The film's shattering conclusion, where to save their own lives villagers must turn on fellow residents, unforgettably evokes the catastrophe of war on the human soul.
Cinematographer Javier Salmones' lighting beautifully articulates the rural charms of Galicia, favoring earthen tones and sharply delineating a world that seems almost painterly.
THE BUTTERFLY
Miramax Films
Sogetel
Las Producciones del Escorpion Voice Group with the collaboration of Canal Plus and the participation of T.V.E.
Director: Jose Luis Cuerda
Screenwriter: Rafael Azcona
Based on short stories by: Manuel Rivas
Executive producers: Fernando Bovaira,
Jose Luis Cuerda
Director of photography: Javier Salmones
Production designer: Josep Rosell
Music: Alejandro Amenabar
Costume designer: Sonia Grande
Editor: Nacho Ruiz Capillas
Color/stereo
Cast:
Don Gregorio: Fernando Fernan-Gomez
Moncho: Manuel Lozano
Rosa: Uxia Blanco
Ramon: Gonzalo Uriarte
Andres: Alexis de Los Santos
Running time - 96 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 6/14/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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