Carice already got praising reviews in her home country the Netherlands but since it premiered during the Tribeca Film Festival. Carice and director Paula van der Oest talked with Variety about the project, it makes us so proud “Black Butterflies” is so well received during the Tribeca Film Festival.

When asked how many films she’s made, van Houten (34 going on 17), dismisses any attempt to be accurate with a wave–”Oh so many, maybe 20.” Two of her better known films are Valkyrie and Black Book. In Black Butterflies, she is an impetuous Ingrid, flaunting her freedom by appearing nearly everywhere barefoot and in short shorts, hard-core flirting with men even within eyesight of Cope. “We knew she did these things, but we had to figure out why,” says van Houten. “So Paula (the director) and I talked about her motivation a lot. I have to talk about my roles until I completely understand them. Only then can I act my roles intuitively. We decided that given Ingrid’s personality, she flirted innocently, like a child, and not to hurt her lover or to make him jealous.”

Read full interview

Gallery Links:
Press Conferences & Film Festival Portraits > “Black Butterflies” Tribeca Film Festival

Examiner.com interviewed Carice during the Tribeca Film Festival. The video of the interview can be found below, Carice’s part begins around 5:25 mark. Excerpt of the interview can be read below as well.

On winning the Best Actress Award
“It’s my first American prize, I’m very very very excited!”

On her attraction to the role
“Well, first of all it was a very meaty part for me to do, after I did a film called ‘Black Book,’ it was a very heavy part as well, and after that I didn’t want to go do anything smaller than that, I just wanted to have the difficult stuff, especially somebody that actually lived was a challenge because you want to do it with respect and it was an important story I think.”

On her preparation for the role
“I read a lot about her, I talked to many people, I read her poetry of course and then I was completely filled with information and then afterwards you have to just cut it, you have to just stop it and just do it yourself because I don’t really believe that I can sort of become her. It’s my interpretation, or it’s our interpretation of the core of her character.”

Source

Carice won the awards for Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film at the Tribeca Film Festival for her amazing performance in “Black Butterflies” which premiered during the festival. We can not express how proud we are of her, this is a big honor! The full list of winners can be found over here.

Jury Comments: “There are a million colors in this complicated performance. We award this honor for bravery and fragility, and for showing tremendous range and strength throughout.”

We added two new events Carice attended during the festival in our gallery. She looked stunning, be sure to stay tuned because we are going to catch up with all the missing updates in the next week.

Gallery Links:
Public Appearances > 2011 > Tribeca Film Festival – TFI Special Legacy Celebration
Public Appearances > 2011 > Tribeca Film Festival – Film Festival Awards Night

Cinespect sat down for a Q&A session with director, Paula van der Oest, and actress, Carice van Houten, to talk with them about their new film, “Black Butterflies,” which is competing in this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in the World Narrative Competition. Both director and star talked about the preparation and execution involved in bringing the story of South African poet, Ingrid Jonker, to the screen.

When reading about the crafting of the screenplay it mentions that once you, Paula, came on board the film “moved away from an apartheid-driven biopic into a feverish insight into the creative mind.” Why the shift in focus?

It’s not that the first time someone has asked me this but it was not more of a political film, it was more a love story (between Jack Cope and Ingrid Jonker). But I thought there’s more to tell about this woman than her relationship with her lover, Jack Cope. I was more attracted to the fact that she had this very difficult relationship with her father. In itself the relationship represents her and the political situation is represented in Ingrid and her father. He was a part of the censorship board and she was the artist, the free spirit.

When you, Carice, were thinking about how to play Ingrid Jonker was there any one key to the performance be it a poem, a conversation with someone, an article of clothing, a photo, a performance, etc.?

Well, yes, maybe. We talked forever about Ingrid because she’s so unpredictable and sometimes you cannot grasp her and for an actress you want to understand everything so we went through everything. We had a really nice talk with a woman that used to know her and all of a sudden we felt like she’s actually a child. She never grew up, she’s just a damaged child and if you see it from that perspective everything sort of fits.

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Carice did a portrait session to promote Black Butterflies at the Tribeca Film Festival. She looked gorgeous as always.

Gallery Links:
Public Appearances > 2011 > “Black Butterflies” Tribeca Film Festival Portrait Session

Click here to see the video.

I was able to interview Carice in Amsterdam as she prepared to head to the US for the world premiere of Black Butterflies tonight at the Tribeca Film Festival. Just a brief synopsis: (contains spoiler elements of the story)

Black Butterflies is the tumultuous life story of South African poet Ingrid Jonker who struggled desperately to gain the love of the men in her life. Her father (played by Rutger Hauer) was an official in the apartheid government who censored work like Ingrid’s and felt she was an embarrassment to him. The two of them disagreed on politics and she could never get past the fact that he was never going to agree with and support her work. She also seemed to fall in love with inappropriate men and the love of her life novelist Jack Cope (Liam Cunningham) served as a father figure/lover, and while they loved each other deeply Ingrid had many deep demons that hounded her and their relationship deteriorated. Carice Van Houten gives a very intense and penetrating portrait of a delicate and incredibly talented female artist who just had a very difficult time surviving and after one too many betrayals by her father she no longer was able to continue.

Women and Hollywood: I found it so interesting when reading your bio you have been in many films with the word black in the title. Black Swans (a dutch film), Black Death, Black Book and now Black Butterflies.

Carice Van Houten: It’s a little bit scary I need to do something white.

WaH: Maybe you are attracted to dark themes.

CVH: I was trained to be a comedian and here I am.

WaH: Most people were introduced to you in the film Black Book. Talk a little bit about that experience and what happened to you after that.

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Yesterday Carice attended the premiere of her new movie Black Butterflies at the Tribeca Film Festival. She looked gorgeous as always. I was able to see the movie already and it is amazing! Carice once again blew me away! If you are able to check it out I highly recommend you do so!

Gallery Links:
Public Appearances > 2011 > “Black Butterflies” Tribeca Film Festival Premiere