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In French with English subtitles. Also known as
Un Papillon sur l'Epaule.
Directed by
Jacques Deray. Arriving in Barcelona to meet his wife, Roland Fériaud (
Lino Ventura) checks into a hotel and is surprised to find a dead man in the room next to his. The next thing he knows, he's regaining consciousness in a deserted rest home, attended by a doctor who asks him a series of bizarre questions. Returning to the hotel, Fériaud meets the wife of the dead man; she gives him the key to a left-luggage locker. When his own wife wife is kidnapped, the now totally perplexed Fériaud receives instructions from a mysterious telephone caller to hand over a briefcase...
With a script provided by Jean-Claude Carrière (a frequent contributor to Luis Buñuel's later films, such as
Belle de Jour and
Le Charme Discret de la Bourgeoisie) and a sterling cast at his disposal (including Jean Bouise, an essential ingredient of any good thriller), Jacques Deray could hardly have failed to make this one of his stand-out films. The camerawork and lighting, helped by Claude Bolling's haunting score, create a palpable mood of entrapment which heightens the tension and the sense that Ventura is being led by invisible hands towards a gruesome end.
Butterfly on the Shoulder isn't just one of the more stylish French thrillers of the 1970s, it is also one of the most disturbing.
