Black Butterflies (2011)
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Reviews Counted: 11
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 3
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.6/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 831
Movie Info
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 (Carice van Houten) 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 (Rutger Hauer), the poet witnesses an unconscionable event that will
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Cast
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Carice van Houten
Ingrid Jonker -
Liam Cunningham
Jack Cope -
Graham Clarke
Uys Krige -
Nicholas Pauling
Eugene Maritz -
Candice D'Arcy
Anna Jonker -
Rutger Hauer
Abraham Jonker, Ministe... -
Ceridwen Morris
Marjorie -
-
Waldemar Schultz
Ettiene le Roux -
Tarryn Page
Irma -
Louis Pretorius
Mike Loots -
Damon Berry
Pieter Venter -
Florence Masebe
Maria -
Jennifer Steyn
Lucille (Lulu) -
Thamsanqua Mbongo
Nkosi
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All Critics (13) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (8) | Rotten (3)
Van Houten ... gives a strong performance as Jonker, and the cinematography is pleasing, but the script is cliché-ridden and ends on an overly sentimental note.
Top CriticThe movie reminds you of the extent to which poetry has been marginalized as a cultural force since the early 1960s.
Black Butterflies is a dark, moving depiction of the life and death of a brave rebellious, idiosyncratic woman who made significant strides toward changing the world around her and paid a heavy toll for her passion.
Always feels like a life schematically condensed rather than intimately explored.
Art, politics, and craziness conspire to form a rather mechanical melodrama in Black Butterflies...
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.
Black Butterflies scarcely tries to illuminate the substance of Jonker's writing.
Black Butterflies is the sad human poetry of the lost souls who slip beneath the waves to echo in our collective consciousness.
The screenplay defiantly never softens [Ingrid] Jonker, but challenges the audience to take her or leave her.
As far as middlebrow biopics go, it may not break any molds, but it's a reasonably sensitive and occasionally insightful look into the mind and psyche of an impassioned and deeply troubled artist.
Audience Reviews for Black Butterflies
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- Ingrid Jonker: Don't you want to know who I am?
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Movie: ID: 771237310 Title: Black Butterflies Release Date: 2012-03-02 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 6 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- Ingrid Jonker (FR)
