Blog 2: Pjotr Sapegin's Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly was very beautiful as an animation, with or without the music you can feel the emotions of the woman throughout the animation. I love the way at the beginning we see the woman splayed out against the dark background which seems to foreshadow something bad will happen to this woman. I also love how we follow the butterfly and it becomes her hair ornament. The butterfly also follows the man after he leaves which seems to refer to her love as always following him, and being with him no matter where he is. I also love how colorful, and bright it is when the man is with her, and then when he leaves we see it become dark and you also seem cold when he leaves.
The way the woman is portrayed when she realizes she is pregnant, she was patting her belly like a drum, and he reaction was “oh what’s this”, even the record player kind of had a human like reaction by turning to also look at the woman’s stomach. It was also interesting how the artist used a fish swimming around in water to simulate the baby in the woman’s stomach. It was also interesting to see the fish seem to break the ice or glass to break out of the woman showing her water breaking. I love the use of the string/umbilical cord between the mother and daughter showing how connected they are, especially since it’s the American man’s daughter. Then when the woman sees the boat she immediately grabs her daughter, and the record player, she gets all dressed up waiting for him, but then as it gets dark we see the boat lit up, and hear the people on it having fun, enjoying themselves as the woman waits.

The woman waits all night long where she was the day before waiting for the man she loves, only to realize that the American man has a wife and has her daughter taken from her. When the man tugs on the daughter’s string, and breaks it away from her mother you can feel how painful that must be. To have the man you love in front of you and to have him rip your daughter from you, you can feel the woman’s heart breaking. Her entire reason for living is now gone, her lover doesn’t love her, her daughter was forcefully taken from her, she then runs always and literally rips her face and skin off showing how she has become no one. She finally disassembles herself, showing herself in her true form killing who she was, and who she could have been. This animation was very powerful with emotion, and how like the butterfly it is strong and powerful, but also fragile and easily broken.