Warning, the following lines contain spoilers for the final episode of Black Butterflies. If you don’t want to know anything, go!
Arte broadcasts the last three episodes of Les Papillons noirs on Thursdays from 20:55., a dark thriller hosted by Nicolas Duvachel and Nils Arestrup. Adrienne, 40, is a writer who lacks inspiration. To escape, he agrees to write the memoirs of a mysterious pensioner, Albert.
The man then tells him about his mad love for Solange, a young woman he met in his youth. They became a pair of serial killers who went on the rampage every summer in 1970s France. However, as the story unfolds, Adrienne discovers that Albert’s story is strangely connected to her own.
In episode 5, the writer actually discovers that the man he thought was a complete stranger is actually his biological father, whom he never knew. And this Solange, the woman with whom he has committed many crimes, is none other than his mother, Catherine (Bridget Catillon).
With this announcement, there is a change in the story, but also in the casting, as Solange’s character, played by Alize Costes in the first 5 episodes, changes the translator. In episode 6, it is now Lola Cretton who slips into the skin of the character. A change that promises to destabilize more than one viewer, but which has a very logical explanation.
“We tried to stay one step ahead of the revelations throughout the series to surprise the audience.This is what Bruno Merle, one of the authors of the series, explained at the press briefing. “The idea behind Les Papillons noirs was to question the images we were offered.”
“is this a flashback Was this story transformed by Albert? Is what we see a way of perceiving this story? Or is it already the fiction of the novel itself? All this made people wonder if what they were seeing was real.“
Therefore, changing the cast in the last episode was an important choice for the two creators, who saw this change as a way to continue the story, but also to destabilize the audience. “If we wanted to be fair, we had no choiceOlivier Abu added.
“From the beginning of the series, we are introduced to Solange, who turns out to be Adrien’s mother. So we wondered if we should choose an actress who looks like the mother from the beginning, with the risk that the audience could guess the irony if we had to cast another actress in the first part.“
“Besides, there are no photos of this Solange. At one point, Maud asks Albert if he has pictures of her to help her write. To which he replies that there is none and he will have to imagine it. This was the first hint of what was to come. On the other hand, Adrien sees Albert’s photo on his driver’s license, which means that he will remain the same Albert until the end. So the first Solange is what Adrienne imagines.”
And also thanks to this change of interpreter, the viewer understands that the images that he has seen since the beginning of the series are actually only interpretations that Adrien has made of the story.
Bruno Merle and Olivier Abou, the screenwriters of Black Butterfly, also added that the idea of changing the interpreter was not in the original script. It was during the casting that the idea came to them.
“We thought of this possibility when it comes to drawing faces for the characters we create. Changing the actor was a bold gamble, but we really had no choice. If we didn’t do that, the narrative wouldn’t work.“
Find the last three episodes of Les Papillons Noirs this Thursday, September 29, from 20:55 on Arte. The series is available in its entirety until October 12 on Arte.tv. Season 1 will be available on Netflix from October 14.
Source: allocine
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
