Black Butterflies (Les Papillons Noirs) is a French thriller series, released on Netflix on 14th October 2022. The series is created and written by Bruno Merle and Olivier Abbou and produced by ARTE, Myriam Gharbi-de Vasselot and Julien Dewolf. There are six episodes in total with a runtime of about 45-64 minutes.
The cast of the series includes Nicolas Duvauchelle as Adrien Winckler, Niels Arestrup as Albert Desiderio, Axel Granberger as Albert Jeune, Alyzée Costes as Solange, Brigitte Catillon as Catherine, Henny Reents as Nastya, Lola Créton as Catherine Jeune, Marie Denarnaud as Mathilde, Alice Belaïdi as Nora and Sami Bouajila as Carrel.
-Black Butterflies Review Does Not Contain Any Spoilers-
The series is about Adrien Winckler, who is a struggling novelist working as a ghostwriter to make ends meet. At the dusk of his life, Albert Desiderio, a humble retired man, decides to hire Adrien to write his memoirs. But the fantastic love story Albert shared with Solange during the 70s turned out to be the confession of a serial killer couple.
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Between fascination and repulsion, Adrien must face the fact, that this novel has everything to be good, so why not make it his own? However, what more sinister secrets will be revealed by the book’s end and what will happen when the writer discovers that Albert did not choose him by chance?
The series starts off with a vivid scene of a child sitting on the dining table with spilt milk from his cereal and staring at a blue butterfly, that turns black, and something bad is certainly going on, as we hear the groaning voice of his mother coming from a locked door. Cut to the present time we meet Adrien, presumably the grown-up version of that kid, as he gets a call from Albert.
Albert is suffering from kidney disease and wants to put down his story before he dies. He isn’t interested in writing his life story from childhood, but rather from the moment that he met the love of his life, Solange. He was bullied as a kid and so was she, and together they kept each other company and blossomed into a close friendship and later love.
But it isn’t just a simple love story, it is complicated and intertwined by the jealousy that comes with it and transforms into violent murders. Violence makes its way in the name of this ‘love’ of the loved one, that of a woman, or of a child. The series accurately depicts this irrepressible addiction, this passage in a flash between hatred, jealousy, sex, brutality, passion, and complicity.
And with crime comes the repercussions and investigation, which introduces us to another important character of the story inspector Carrel. The story runs on three parallels – that of the relationship between the author and the old man, the unpunished epic of a couple of murderers and an investigation carried out by a mysterious cop.
Slowly, all three narratives connect with each other and what follows next, is a series of turns, twists and blood. The common point between them is this constant tension between the protagonists, this rage for revenge which leads them and this jealousy which is expressed in all kinds of violence.
Summing Up: Black Butterflies
It is evident from the series that the creators are trying to resemble the Italian Giallo style of cinema, where a murder mystery story usually blends the atmosphere and suspense of thriller fiction with elements of horror fiction (such as slasher violence) and eroticism, often involving a mysterious killer whose identity is not revealed until the final act of the story.
It plays with the concept of disillusionment of memory and reality. Often times the lead has a hard time distinguishing between fiction and real life. The metaphorical element ‘black butterfly’ is often used and what it really means is secret wisdom, a knowledge that is rare and is only possessed by those who are determined and unafraid in their pursuit of it.
Adrien finds the black butterfly when he has accepted what was being told to him and decided to pursue it, no matter what. Similarly, when Carrel realises the connection between him, Albert and Mody, the black butterfly goes to him. Coming to the writer’s pen name Mody, if you look at it in general terms then it’s a rare type of diabetes, which Adrien suffers from, thus the name.
But if you dig deeper into its origin, then it comes from the french word Maudit, which means cursed. Another element used in the show is the quote from the bible about the father eating sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge. Which seen literally means that the coming generation will bear the repercussions of their father’s sins.
But this has been debunked and it’s said that each man is responsible for their actions and whatever happens to them is their own karma, not something inherited from them. In simpler words, Adrien had his whole life to make the right decisions and it’s not true that he will become just like his parents or suffers because of them.
Overall the series is a quick yet intriguing watch. Once you get familiar with the story, it might even feel very predictable to you but as you are getting comfortable with it, another twist brings you to the start again. It makes you question everything and takes you to the same page as the lead actor. However, if something is to be critiqued then they didn’t end the story as clearly as they set up its base and could leave you confused a bit.
Black Butterflies is currently streaming on Netflix.
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Trying to watch it now, it is nerve racking, I hate subtitles and dubbing. Sometimes the artist takes their art too seriously, I doubt I will watch more than another episode, this critique may help.
The actress playing the young Solange seems to have been substituted in the sixth session of the series. I found the change jarring.
It’s because the Solange from the beginning represents the one in Adrian’ s imagination. In the end it we see what really happened: that Solange was behind the murders, and that Solange is, infact, Adrian’s mum. That’s why we see a different person playing Solange in the last episodes, it’s the real Solange, i.e., Arian’s mum when she was young
Why is Adrien (Mody) being blamed for everything at the end?
Probably my one of my best mini series ever. So glad you explained why Solange changed. Makes sense.