I don’t watch a lot of movies, and even then most of the ones I do are often Japanese animated films. But the French club at my school was having a movie night, and since I had both enough free time and the opportunity to get extra credit, I decided to go and watch the movie they were showing: Le Papillon.
Before I watched the movie, I decided to Google the movie because I was curious what it would be about. It was obviously going to be related to butterflies, seeing as “le papillon” means “the butterfly” in French…On a side note, there is a Vocaloid producer who is known by two names, “Papiyon” and “ChouchoP” (“chou” meaning butterfly in Japanese). Actually, when I first realized that this movie focused on the relationship between an old man and a little girl, I immediately wondered if this was going to be some pedophile story like Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. Thankfully, I can assure you it is not.
Anyways, the story is basically as follows: A young girl, Elsa, and her mom Isabelle move into the same apartment building as an old man, Julien, who collects butterflies. Since Isabelle is often away from home, Elsa spends a lot of time by herself, and one time Julien lets her go into his apartment, which is full of butterflies – mounted on walls, and even live butterflies in a room which he tells her not to go into. Julien goes on a trip to find a rare butterfly called the Isabelle (spoiler: it’s not a coincidence that it’s the same name as her mother) that can only live for 72 hours, but it turns out that Elsa, without his knowing, had climbed into the trunk of his car. She manages to convince him to take her on the trip, so they drive to the mountains and hike for several days to reach a place where they can look for the butterfly. Julien is initially very irritated by Elsa, who is a chatterbox and constantly asks questions, but they eventually start to get along. In the meantime, Isabelle has come home to find that Elsa was gone, and believes that her daughter has been kidnapped by Julien. That’s all that I’ll reveal about the plot; you’ll have to watch it to learn what happens.
At first, I wasn’t sure that I would like the movie, but it turned out to be quite enjoyable. There were many humorous conversations between Elsa and Julien. Unfortunately right now the only one I can recall is when Elsa asks what the difference between a dream and nightmare is. Julien replies that “A nightmare is a dream that goes bad. It’s like children; they start out like a dream but they become nightmares”. …Sorry, I know that wasn’t a good example. But I think if you like comedies (which I do) and happy endings, then you should really see this film. I really don’t have any complaints except that I would’ve liked to see Julien get questioned by the police and have Elsa run in and tearfully explain that it was all her fault and that he didn’t mean any harm…Oh well, it’s still good even without the sob story moment I’d envisioned. xD
I overheard the kids in charge of the French club talking after the movie, and they were telling my French teacher that they “had a hard time finding a French movie that wasn’t inappropriate”. I have to laugh at this, because from my experience of looking at what movies my dad watches, it’s very true. Often the movies he watches seem to involve cheating on people’s spouses and angry swearing. (Now that I think of it, no wonder my dad is a such a bad influence…) So I commend the club officers for actually finding an amusing film that could actually be shown at school. It does make me a little more open to watching French films in the future, so I think I may attend future movie nights if there are any. (I do not think I would have the patience to look through all the movies at the local library to find one that is both funny and appropriate. I’d rather spend that time looking for books.) And of course, it would be a great help if anyone has any comedies that they’d like to recommend. I’d love to hear about them.
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