Synopsis
Nostalgia.
Ferding, Santos and Willy only drink in despair. One day, a Canadian woman’s visit changes everything.
Butterflies Have No Memories
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This was so good, it's been way too long since I've seen one of Diaz's films and this brought back the feeling I've been wanting to experience again for a while. I can't wait to get off of school so I can binge more of his films. So, about this one, I really wasn't expecting much but I was pleasantly surprised. The 61 minute runtime suited this story very well, and I love the way it ends. Although this is definitely not Diaz at his best, it's a good slice of his style that is worth watching.
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Butterflies Have No Memories is one of the more interesting films I have seen about nostalgia. A woman from western civilization visits her now impoverished birthplace in the Philippines, meeting her friends and family from yesteryear. Her return is marked with a variety of emotional responses from her townsfolk, from being welcomed with open arms, to being glared at with a jealous eye, and neglected by others.
She continuously projects an aura of positivity, while everyone around her is plagued with melancholy and indifference. She returns to a nostalgic place that is dear to her, taking pictures to create and preserve new memories and reminiscing about her past, when everything seemed much better.
These sentiments are more or less understood…
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This film shows just how much of a hold memories have over us, whether it be from trauma or nostalgia. The distinction lies in how they are remembered and by who. These are the riddles Diaz is most fond of investigating.
This is always traced back to the political event. Often an actual historical event, it must be dealt with painstakingly.
What's interesting is that it is retorted not with direct commentary, but with poetry. Instead of statistics, we are made to empathize with a person's suffering. Instead of charts or graphs, we are given metaphors and symbols to feel and define things ourselves.This is a loose framework Diaz holds on to throughout his filmography. That makes this short film actually a good starting point for those intimidated by his longer work.
That final scene has been playing in my head for double-digit hours all the same and it will be in my memory for much much longer.
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79/100
Butterflies Have No Memories is part of a 2009 anthology film Visitors, with two other segments directed by Hong Sang-soo and Naomi Kawase, featuring the common theme of the outsider's experience in visiting a place where they don't naturally fit in. Running for a mere 61 minutes (this is the director's cut), the film is a slap in the face of everyone doubting Diaz's proficiency with shorter formats.
Martha, a Filipino-born Canadian citizen, returns to the hometown she left behind when she was only nine. Her father used to own a mining factory in the town which closed down upon their departure, leaving a huge number of locals without a source of income. Since then, economic woes have transformed…
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In which violence is not an answer nor a solution, but a reaction. I think the 60 minute cut is better, but I couldn't find anywhere. If there's ever an opportunity to go to the Philippines, here's hoping it is black and white and full of despair.
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I think I should find the one-hour director's cut since this 40-minute cut felt rather like summary or demonstration. Many of the things felt too vague and when I look at the write-ups of some of the others who saw this film, I think as if I'd seen different one. It's quiet and reduced like others, cinematic expression is minimalist to the point that it feels almost non-existent but Diaz' work has always been the kind of cinema that gains its strength in its overall atmosphere and structure. Unlike others I've seen, Butterflies Have No Memories didn't manage to do a thing for me. Usually with Diaz, he manages to hurt me even physically (raping scene in Norte f.e.) but I failed to "live" this film. To be frank, it felt too hurried - not exactly something you expect to see from Diaz. Waiting for the 61-minute cut!
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This is my first film by Lav Diaz, an independent Filipino director who's known for its very long epic films (some last over 8 hours!).
Butterflies Have no Memories was originaly a short (40 minutes) for the annual digital project of the Jeonju International Film Festival.
I watched the director's cut version which lasts one hour.The shutdown of the mines on a remote island of the Philippines, where the economic crisis has taken over, deeply affected some of its inhabitants, including 3 lonely men, Mang Ferding, a former head of security of the mine, his friend, also a former employee of the mine and Willy, a young man who sells salt bread for a living. While they spend their…
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Diaz can still knock you down even when his artistic expression is constrained by the restriction of time, Butterflies Have No Memories possesses the same amount of subdued tension and a profound feeling of anxiety and discomfort. His enchanting wizardry in the long static takes continues to teleport one inside it's rapidly collapsing world. Only a few films can interweave nostalgia, economic stagnation and human conditions to assemble the collective failure of an ill-fated society the way Butterflies does that too within the span of an hour.
Once there used to be a gold mine which was the source of remuneration for the locals in the unnamed and relatively desolate township where the story takes place long after the withdrawal…
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Hour 54
Only Diaz could create a film that's an hour long and still have it classified as a "short"
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Those fuckers took all the gold and left all the toxins.
If you want to understand Filipinx society from one of the best filmmakers on the planet then Lav Díaz is your man & here the colonial influences (Christianity,) and exploitation bubble quick and fast (for Díaz who is known for his eight hour slow cinema). Only reason it’s not 5 stars is the Canadian actor was a tad wooden )maybe that’s the point though).
Basically Díaz is a genius.