Maybe I missed that part. In the DVD I watched, you can't make out some of the dubbing so you might miss important lines of dialogue. But I don't remember there being any glass dolls. The title really should have had something to do with butterflies..don't you think?
shareApparently the original title was "Short Night of the Butterflies", but it was changed just prior to release due to another film with buttefly in the title beign released around the same time. The title "Short Night of the Glass Dolls" doesn't make a lot of sense.
shareI just watched the featurette on the DVD under extras. According to the director the original title was Malastrana, an area of Prague in which the film was shot. The distributors changed it to Short Night of the Butterflies, claiming no one would recognize the town's name. Just as the posters and ads were completed and the film was about to be released, another film, The Bloodstained Butterfly, was released so they had to quickly come up with a substitute name long enough to cover "Butterflies" with labels.
sharethat is actually quite sad :P
But why the hell glass dolls? I must say it sounds creepy enough to be fitting this film, but wouldn't it be better is they went for Short Night of the Heliconius (ahum).
At first I thought the glass dolls was somehow a reference to the victims.
I love how people read into the name and try to make it fit for the film. I did the same thing until I watched the extras and Aldo Lado said that it was a quick fix right before the release of the film.
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I think that the "glass dolls" or butterflys could be symbolized by the chandelier clinging and chiming when he looked up at it in his room or other places when it shows the chandelier.
Peace :P
"I know it was you Fredo"
[deleted]
Yeah right?! People need to be a bit more observant here.
"IMdB; where 14 year olds can act like jaded 40 year old critics...'
Agree. The term "Glass Dolls" somehow reminds me of stereotypical Hollywood / Disney girls.
The original title Short Night of the Butterflies, butterflies may mean they're drugged up hypnotized victims of cults as butterflies are usually used as triggers in some of the mind control groups.
Great movie, Kubrick got inspired by it in Eyes Wide Shut? Who knows, but truly a great suspense thriller.
If you notice in the concert hall, the American journalist Gregory finds a glass doll in the shape of a butterfly. Apparently, they performed some kind of ritual involving glass dolls of butterflies. Those were the glass dolls that the title is about.
I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. - Charles Dickens
I thought "glass dolls" were a metaphorical reference to the drugged people (specially the missing girls), since they would be cataleptic most of the time (like Gregory Moore throughout the film). But yes, "butterflies" made much more sense, specially considering the old man's last words and the painting Mira gave Gregory.
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