Man of Flowers

source: Man of Flowers

Over twenty years ago, a good friend at the time insisted I see this film. And until a few weeks ago, I thought I'd never done so. But when I got about four fifths of the way through it, I realized that I had seen it before. I had forgotten this. My most recent viewing also came from a friend's insistence that I see it (different friend). I can see why people THINK I should like it. It has art, beauty, flowers, sensitivity, an intelligent and gentle approach to sexuality, uniqueness, and flair. But I just don't. I find the central character painfully stagnant, rather than poetically so, with his preoccupation with both the collective past and his own past. He reminds me of people I have known who are equally sensitive and locked in their own worlds, and I find it more tedious than romantic. Rather, I found the obnoxious young painter to be full of life and vivid. So it's not for me. With its antiquated sense of beauty, I suspect it would appeal most easily to people who were born before 1965. It really is a lovely little jewel.

A middle-aged man is unable to have relationships with women, apparently a byproduct of his strict upbringing we learn via flashbacks. It is by turns provocative, funny, and pretentious, but always interesting and definitely quirky. Kaye is well cast as the man-child in search of beauty while Best is lovely as one of the objects of his affection. Among the amusing characters are the philosophical postman and Best's hack artist boyfriend. Cox directs with a sense of freshness, helped considerably by the ever-present music from Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor." The flashback scenes of Kaye's childhood are tinged with Oedipal feelings, simultaneously sad and erotic.

Slow but absorbing character study of a rich lonely, repressed man obsessed with the beauty he cannot possess (sexually) so sublimating in all sorts of ways. Norman Kaye is sympathetic as the hero, so it is a bit surprising when he shows a nasty side at the end. The other performers are fine too, but the view of modern art as empty and opportunistic is a bit too one sided, and the character of the bad artist played by Chris Haywood therefore comes across as a caricature. However, the locations and interiors are beautifully shot, and the music by Donizetti effectively used. The use of super 8 to show Bremer's memories work well, and the actors who play his mum and dad (Werner Herzog) are most memorable. The whole film reminds one of Herzog's films - take for instance the postman's character; and perhaps Greenaway's too - the erotic bits, and shock end. In fact it seem to be an early example of the quirkiness so many Australian films would fixate on later.

It's no surprise, you'll find Man Of Flowers one of the oddest films you've ever see. A rich lonely man, Norman Kaye, fantastic as, loves arty things. He plays piano, studies flowers, art, pays to watch beautiful young women like Alyson Best disrobe, in the opening scene. Not there's nothing wrong with the latter, although I wouldn't pay a hundred smackaroos. But in our Charles Bremmer, is an underlying picture of a lonely and mentally sick man. He posts letters to his dead mother. His psychiatrist isn't any help either, telling Charles he's doing the same thing as well as informing him that the rates are going up. One thing Charles has a lot of, is money. The scene with his shrink is my favorite among a few others. He forms a friendship with Best, that borders on a sexual one. Best though too has a lesbian lover, in one frank scene of nudity, one thing this film doesn't hold back on. Another scene, a droll timeless one, involves Kaye, in the raw, standing up in a spa bath, telling a doctor on the phone, his problems, like how he loves to smell his studies flowers, and wait till you hear how he replies. Just another guy that doesn't understand our poor Charles and his predictament. Best has an abusive ex boyfriend (Haywood-good as always) a struggling artist, who lives in the studio in the city. One scene sees him having an argument with a client on the phone, while nibbling on a yo yo biscuit, is another treasured scene. Haywood, one of Aussie's great actors is great at portraying anger, it had me rewatching the scene a few times as other ones. When Best moves in with Charles she invites her lesbian lover over, where Charles explains a exercise they must do, where Charles starts by quoting, "I've been told by doctors in the higher field". He even gets a pool installed, tent and all, I found intriguing. I really wanted Best to end up with Charles, but the end just reminds us lonely folk, as we stand apart from our other lonely peers while looking out to sea, loneliness can sometimes to be an inevitably, especially if we're not willing to do anything about it, or keep turning people away. The scenes that really got up my goat, I had to fast forward, were flashbacks played against operatic music. But they're not all bad. One shows Charles as a kid outside with a slingslot, breaking one of the front windows, where the father comes running out after him. Another of the weird scenes has Charles having quite a peculiar conversation with you're not ordinary mailman, who prewarns him about the consequences of not paying gas bills. A lot of scenes in this film are odd, as it's other characters, that are not of the regular norm, but they're funny. Another odd scene, is when he's sketching a * artist-guess who? His teacher-Julia Blake, goes off at him, as he's drawing flowers instead. What's this preoccupation with flowers? Man Of Flowers is odd, but with it's oddness, is it's originality that I liked. This one deserves it's place up against Bliss, though it's not gonna appeal to all tastes. It's one of the most uniquely beautiful and oddest Aussie films you'll see, with great performances to boot.

Charles Bremer likes classical music, flowers, and art. He's a lonely church organist and hires * model Lisa for private sessions. Her boyfriend David is an angry, struggling artist. Charles writes letters to his mother and takes art classes. He is outwardly wealthy with family money but it may not be what it seems. Bremer is like a trust fund baby without purpose. Norman Kaye creates a private but personable character. It's a compelling emotionally-damaged role. Alyson Best is memorable especially her opening scene. She's a Manic Pixie Dream Girl with real damage from her ugly boyfriend. The plot is a little thin. It's really a great sad character study of these two people. It's a little slow at times but it's a great art-house Aussie indie.

When he was a little boy, Charles saw his mother naked, and he has been obsessed with his mother and naked women ever since. He pays a psychiatrist to listen to him talk about his mother, and he pays a woman named Lisa to take off her clothes the way his mother did, giving Paul Cox, the director, an excuse to film some full frontal nudity. In between, Charles writes letters to his dead mother, addressed to himself, and goes around looking for statues of naked women to feel up. But I guess that was not enough for Cox, so he gave Lisa a girlfriend, who is a lesbian, and they have sex together, and we get to watch. But Charles wants to watch too, so he pays them for the privilege. And that was not enough for Cox, so when Charles goes to look at David's art, we get to see David with a naked woman. And then when Charles kills David so he can have Lisa for himself (just to watch, not to touch), he has a sculptor disguise David's corpse as a statue. A naked statue, of course. Now, lest we get the idea that Charles is a pervert (or that Cox is a pervert for wanting to make a movie like this), we have Lisa's assurance that Charles is a kind, sensitive, sweet man. And then Cox wraps the whole seedy tale up in a lot of art: we have the organ that Charles plays for the church, we have operatic music unrelentingly going on in the background, we have sculpture and paintings, we have arrangements of flowers, and we have an art class, where a woman poses *. In other words, Cox really put some lipstick on this pig.

An unforgettable film that lingers in memory long after the viewer forgets most details including the narrative itself, "Man of Flowers" is one I saw with my former wife decades ago. I thought she liked it as much as I did. She did not like it at all. At the time, I saw the movie, I linked it with a close friend who lived an acrid and wilted life similar to that of the protagonist Charles Bremer. As I aged, I realized more of myself in the protagonist—something more than a tad unnerving. Critics praise Norman Kaye for his courage in this role—I think they rightly commend him, but the entire film seems an act of great courage for those involved in its creation, that includes Alyson Best (Lisa)and Chris Haywood the young actor who plays her abuser David. Critics note how the film takes a comic turn—it does. The final scene looks like something from a surrealist painting but it most fully to me evokes Ute Lemper's haunting cover of the song "Just a Little Yearning" that " won't be fulfilled

A wonderful slow, gentle film, full of strange characters. I loved the eccentricities of all the characters; the mad painter, the crazy psychiatrist, the main character, Charles, who is obsessed by flowers. Even the postman who delivers the letters Charles sends to himself every day is delightful. The characters are surrounded by wonderful images and the background music is absolutely divine. The rather freudian storyline follows the relationships between Charles, a rich eccentric artist, a young woman he pays to strip for him and her violent boyfriend. I liked the strength of Charles's character despite his gentleness, which leads to a good twist at the end. I loved it.

This is one of many films I saw at too young an age. I was probably about 11 or 12 if memory serves me correctly. Due to that I do have an affection for this film, or more precisely, an affection for Alyson Best. I thought, as I was a kid at the time that I didn't get it because of my age. I thought there was something deeper at play that I wasn't able to detect or understand. Having watched it as an adult I can see that there isn't much going on. Charles is someone who cannot connect easily with others. He needs rules and boundaries. Such as paying a woman to undress for him but not touching her. He is obsessed with his mother which is another recurring theme. In end he commits murder which shows an even darker side to him. An interesting film but hardly amazing either.