The Butterfly Collectors

BACKGROUND

There are two significant crises in Marion Maiers life. The first is; as a girl she is walking with her grandfather whom she adores through a summer field. He catches a butterfly in a net and kills it with chloroform. She does not understand how her gentle grandfather could do such a thing. The second crisis which is implied but not told; is Marions discovery of her grandfathers part in the Jewish holocaust. These two crises become entangled and she descends into a delusional state culminating in her
admission to a mental ward. This is when the film begins.

STORY
Twenty-five-year-old Marion is dancing a strange dance that involves pouncing on the air and then inhaling deep with her face close to the floor. She is interrupted by a nurse who leads her out of the room and down the corridor. Marion continues her dance until she reaches the door of Dr. Schmidts office. Dr. Schmidt greets her but she ignores him and walks up to a butterfly collection hanging on the wall behind him. She begins mouthing the Latin names.

She remembers as a small girl walking with her own grandfather. Hand and hand, as he named the flowers and butterflies around them. She points a butterfly out to him and he captures it in his net and kills it with chloroform. She is horrified. Later he shows her the blue butterfly pinned
out, and shows her the feathers on its wings under a magnifying glass. She is both fascinated and horrified.

Dr. Schmidt asks Marion about her interest in butterflies, and she explains that her grandfather gave her his collection.

Marion remembers as a teenager her mother giving her, her grandfathers butterfly collection. She shouts at her mother that that she does not want anything from him. She flings the butterfly collection across the table where it teeters on the edge but does not fall.

She tells Dr. Schmidt that she is out collecting butterflies every weekend, even in winter. She describes a midwinter butterfly endemic to Dachau area that has no mouth because it has no need to eat, living less than a day.
Then she confesses the story is fabrication and admits to never having the heart to capture a butterfly or put a pin through something so beautiful. The doctor pursues this line.

She then explains it is thoughts she has been catching with her butterfly net. She sees the thoughts hovering in the air. She catches the thoughts with her net and kills them with chloroform. She describes an example of a thought in a disjointed yet poetic way. The doctor with barely suppressed
voyeurism enjoys the erotic nature of the thought and he asks for another example. She describes her classification system of thoughts which mimics the biological classification. She then explains a genus of thoughts
that she is currently studying from the inmates of Dachau concentration camp. The doctor becomes distressed.

Marion sees his discomfort and asks, "Do you think Im cruel? Cruel for catching and killing these thoughts?" "No I dont think youre cruel," he strains to reply. Then he wipes the sweat from his forehead and with professional coolness he tells her that chloroform is a dangerous substance and that he will refer her to a detoxification clinic. He then calls the nurse. Marion challenges his sudden dismissal to no avail. The doctor appears tormented as she leaves the room.

As she walks with the nurse towards the ward she suddenly realises that she has been mimicking her grandfather, she has absorbed his loves and also his guilt. She says, "Im doing his dance - it is his dance. Ive been doing Opas dance."

CHARACTERS DEVELOPMENT
Marion Maier
We map the development of Marion Maiers fall into insanity. It is the loss of trust for the man she loves the most, her Opa. First when she was a child, he killed a butterfly and later as she discovers his role in the
holocaust. This is implied by the force with which she rejects his butterfly collection as a teenager. This would be excessive if his only guilt was to kill a butterfly. This conflict in her feelings for her grandfather is manifested in her
mimicking his hobby and at the same time sympathizing with his victims. Her torment is amplified with the chloroform abuse.

During the conversation with Dr. Schmidt different strands of her problem are introduced but not fully explored. When the Doctor rejects her story and dismisses her as a chloroform addict she is pushed to another crisis and in
the moment of complete helplessness she ties the some of the strands together herself. She identifies the source of her problem: she has been unable to reconcile the contradiction that can lie within one person - a gentle grandfather and killer. This insight is the beginning of her healing process.

Dr. Schmidt
In this story Dr. Schmidt is a catalyst, but he does experience a crisis - the crisis being his own past. This crisis he has probably faced many times in his life, and his ability to skip over it seems smoothed and practiced.

However, there is a moments transparency that suggests he is haunted by his past. His role in the war is left very implicit, he was young at the time, so his guilt may only be his former belief in the final solution or perhaps it is more. What is important is, he is closer to the guilt than Marion who is trying to reconciliate a previous generations guilt.
Dr. Schmidts behavior appears professional. Yet at the same time he does not pick up the strands of Marions story in order to identify the source of her problem. Instead he looks at the manifestation of her problem which is her chloroform addiction, and in doing so escapes having to deal with her and issues surrounding guilt.

EXAMPLE OF SCRIPT
OPENING SCENE/S

INT. WARD IN MÜNCHEN INSTITUTION- DAY
Twenty-five-year-old MARION is dancing a strange dance which involves pouncing on the air. She opens an imaginary jar and transforms an imaginary object into it. Then she inhales deeply as though from the jar.

MARION
Butterflies in snow, thats my thought, I caught my own.

Marion pounces again.

EXT. SUMMER MEADOW
Twenty-five-year-old Marion is running through the meadow with a silk net in one hand and a rucksack on her back. She sees a butterfly but she is hunting something else. She catches something invisible. She opens her bag, takes
out a notebook and honey jar with cottonwool inside. She inhales deeply and rapidly writes notes into the logbook.

BACK TO
INT. WARD/HALL IN MÜNCHEN INSTITUTION- DAY
Marion is crouched on the floor. A young and severe NURSE helps her up and leads her out of the ward down a long corridor. Marion continues to dance, she dances the length of the hall until she reaches the door of Dr. Schmidts office. The nurse knocks and they both enter.

INT. OFFICE IN MÜNCHEN INSTITUTION- DAY
DR. SCHMIDT is in his late seventies, white haired and piercing blue eyes. He looks kind and professional

NURSE
Frau Maier

DR. SCHMIDT
Thank you.

The nurse nods and leaves.

DR. SCHMIDT
Good morning Frau Maier. How was your first night?

Marion ignores him and walks to a butterfly collection on the wall behind him. She begins mouthing the Latin names.

DR. SCHMIDT
Are you interested in butterflies?

Marion continues mouthing their names.

DR. SCHMIDT
Marion?

MARION
My Opa - my grandfather gave me his butterfly collection - I mean I inherited it.

EXT. SUMMER MEADOW DAY
SEVEN-YEAR-OLD MARION is walking through the meadow holding her grandfathers OPAs hand. Marion is skipping to keep up with him. He stops points at a butterfly.

SEVEN YEAR-OLD MARION
Whats the name of the flower?

OPA
Thats a buttercup.

Marion points at butterfly one that mimics another butterfly species. Opa swiftly catches it in a silk net. He gets a jar out of his bag with cottonwool in it and transforms the butterfly from the net to the jar. Marion watches in horror as its wings stop moving. She looks at Opa accusingly.

OPA
They have short lives, anyway.

INT. STUDY- DAY
A study filled with a nature enthusiasts belongings. Rocks, crystals, bird skulls, and guidebooks. Seven-year-old Marion is looking out the window. Opa is sitting on a chair and on the bench is the butterfly pinned. He is looking at the wings through a magnifying glass.

OPA
Marion. Look here!

Marion walks hesitantly over to him.

OPA
See how beautiful...

Marion looks.

MARION
Oh! It looks like million of tiny feathers.

Marion stands back looking sullen. She shrugs off Opas hand on her shoulder.

Av Elsa Nora 15 mar 2001 18:20