Its astonishing formal beauty earned the Camera d'Or for this captivating first film, from Vietnam. To discover!
After the death of his sister-in-law in a motorcycle accident in Saigon, Thiên brings her body back to their native village, accompanied by Dao, his 5-year-old nephew, who emerged from the accident without a scratch. On a quest that deeply questions his faith, Thiên travels the countryside in search of his older brother, who disappeared years ago.
The Golden Butterfly Tree (Inside is a golden cocoon), released in 2023, is the first feature film by Vietnamese Pham Thiên Ân, born in 1989. After obtaining a diploma in information technology, he decided to invest in cinema. A good choice, confirmed by the award in 2023 of the Golden camera to this first film which only attracted a little over 52,000 spectators to our cinemas.
Pham Thiên Ân had previously stood out for the selection in several festivals of two short films,
The Mute (Shut up2018) et Stay Awake, Be
Ready (Be diligent & ready), awarded at Cannes in 2019 by the Illy Short Film Prize. These two films are offered as bonuses on the Blu-ray.
The Golden Butterfly Treewritten and edited by the director, follows, shot after shot, the main character, Thiên, often accompanied by Dao, his orphan nephew. He sees a childhood friend who became a nun again, then a girlfriend from his adolescence, not yet ready to take the plunge, and tries to find his older brother, who left after Dao's birth without leaving an address… The sudden death of his sister-in-law, wars and disasters make him question the existence of God, the myth of the immortality of the soul, a legacy of his Catholic education. Questions which remain unanswered but seem to lead Thiên towards a sort of serenity that could be symbolized by the dissipation of the mist in the last sequence.
Although no exceptional event or twist comes, during the three hours that the projection lasts, to disrupt Thiên's quiet return to his origins, we easily succumb to the hypnotic spell diffused by the formal beauty of The Golden Butterfly Treemade of an alternation of carefully framed fixed shots and very long sequence shots, an astonishing, virtuoso and fluid combination of slow camera movements, front, rear, side and panoramic tracking shots. An astonishing result obtained with the complicity of cinematographer Dinh Duy Hung whose experience was limited to the two short films by Pham Thiên Ân.
The Golden Butterfly Treealso owes a lot to the landscapes of the mountainous plateau of the province of Lam Dông, shrouded in mystery by the mist, to a touch of the supernatural with, in the middle of the night, the surprising appearance, probably dreamed, of the tree with golden butterflies, as well as an immersion in the sounds of nature: birdsong, chirping of crickets, running of a torrent, rustling of leaves in the wind, crash of a storm…
The Golden Butterfly Tree (179 minutes) fits on a BD-50 Blu-ray and a DVD-9. The supplements (70 minutes) are supported by Blu-ray only. The two disks are housed in a Digipack with three panels, slipped into a case.
The film is offered in its original language, Vietnamese, with optional subtitles, and the choice between two audio formats, Dolby Atmos, core TrueHD 7.1, or DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo (Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 stereo on the DVD).
English subtitles available.
They are, with the exception of the trailer, only supported by Blu-ray.
Making of The Golden Butterfly Tree (24'). Without comment, the document shows Pham Thiên Ân's intense investment in the placement of characters and objects in the frame, in the direction of the actors, almost all non-professionals, in the recording of sound and in appreciating the means techniques implemented, trolleys on rails, cranes, steadycams.
Interview with director Pham Thiên Ân
(15'). “A journey into the past of a character who finds his origins, voluntarily erased from his memory (…) where I favored very wide and very long shots, almost motionless (…) by establishing a great distance with the character (…) and giving the viewer time to observe it.” Spirituality and religion, during filming (which stretched over three years), gradually occupied a greater place than they had in the script. He saw the benefit of seizing the unexpected and allowing the actors a part of improvisation.
And two short films by Pham Thiên Ân:
The Mute (Shut up2018, 1.78:1, Vietnamese, English subtitles, 15'), selected in several festivals. Under a rainstorm announced by the television, a mute young woman goes, after dark, to a café where the woman she was looking for refuses to speak to her. The next day, she gets married.
Stay Awake, Be Ready (Be diligent & ready2019, 1.78:1, Vietnamese, subtitled, 14'), selected in around ten festivals, awarded at Cannes in 2019 by the Illy Short Film Prize. One evening, a conversation between consumers seated on the terrace of a café in Saigon is interrupted by the noise of a traffic accident. A man who is sitting on the terrace, on the other side of the street, is joined by two others who tell him about the seriousness of the injuries of the woman who was the victim of the collision… With great resemblance to the opening scene of The Golden Butterfly Treethis film, composed of a single sequence shot, announces the director's predilection for long shots.
Trailer (1’36”).
The digital image, with the original ratio of 1.85:1, encoded at the 1080p standard, AVC, bright, pleasantly contrasted, displays delicately calibrated colors. The legibility of all plans is ensured, apparently without the use of artificial lighting.
Dolby Atmos sound, core Dolby TrueHD 7.1, with good dynamics and balanced signal distribution across the seven channels, provides a realistic feeling of immersion in the action highlighting the special care taken in recording sound. ambience and delivers with finesse the plucking of the guitar strings in Rossiniana No. 2 op. 120 by Mauro Giuliani, performed by guitarist Flavio Cucchi.
Image credits: © Fasten Films, Potocol, JK Film, Meilleur Ligne Films
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