Black Butterflies

Name: Black Butterflies
Genre: Drama
Released: March 2, 2012
Duration: 100 min
Rating: 66

2012

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Generally favorable reviews based on 9 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Ratings

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7.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 5 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Tribeca Film | Release Date: March 2, 2012 | Not Rated

Summary: Poetry, politics, madness, and desire collide in the true story of the woman hailed as South Africa's Sylvia Plath. In 1960s Cape Town, as Apartheid steals the expressive rights of blacks and whites alike, young Ingrid Jonker finds her freedom scrawling verse while frittering through a series of stormy affairs. Amid escalating quarrels withPoetry, politics, madness, and desire collide in the true story of the woman hailed as South Africa's Sylvia Plath. In 1960s Cape Town, as Apartheid steals the expressive rights of blacks and whites alike, young Ingrid Jonker finds her freedom scrawling verse while frittering through a series of stormy affairs. Amid escalating quarrels with her lovers and her rigid father, a parliament censorship minister, the poet witnesses an unconscionable event that will alter the course of both her artistic and personal lives. (Tribeca Film)… Expand

Director: Paula van der Oest

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 100 min

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Critic Reviews

Stephen Holden

Mar 1, 2012

In its jagged style and tone Black Butterflies is as close to an inside-out view of Jonker's tumultuous life as a movie could go without sinking into chaos. Its hues are continuously changing, and the seaside weather around Cape Town reflects her tempestuous emotional life. Read full review

Ronnie Scheib

Feb 26, 2012

The uncompromising power of Ingrid Jonker's poetry runs like a pulsing vein through Black Butterflies. Read full review

Jordan Mintzer

Feb 26, 2012

Paula van der Oest's biopic of South African poet Ingrid Jonker is conventional yet captivating thanks in large part to a terrific lead performance from Carice van Houten. Read full review

Kenji Fujishima

Feb 26, 2012

A reasonably sensitive and occasionally insightful look into the mind and psyche of an impassioned and deeply troubled artist. Read full review

Keith Uhlich

Feb 28, 2012

Carice van Houten (Black Book) is superb as the emotionally unstable Jonker - all manically beaming highs and depressively gloomy lows, a tempestuous force of nature in a movie that too often plays it blandly polite. Read full review

Sam Adams

Feb 29, 2012

At least Black Butterflies gets the tortured-soul part right. Read full review

Nick Schager

Feb 28, 2012

Art, politics, and craziness conspire to form a rather mechanical melodrama in Black Butterflies. Read full review

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