Cinema: Butterfly

His first day at school, the asthmatic boy (Manuel Lozano) wets his pants in anxiety. But his teacher (Fernando Fernan Gomez), a genius in caring for young minds, sees promise in the child. Thus begins a lovely friendship, tested to the breaking point in a Spanish village at the beginning of the Civil War. This art-house weepie, based on stories by Manuel Rivas, is impeccably Miramaxian in its Bambi-eyed child, its liberal attitude and its emotion-cuing score. O.K., but we fell for it–for the deft mood setting and the canny vignettes of young love and adult rancor. Fernan Gomez, nearly 60 years in films, carries himself (and the film) with the dignity of a gifted gentleman who knows how to transmit joy and endure suffering. Butterfly is a savory cocktail with a bitter twist.

–R.C.