Man of Flowers **** (1983, Norman Kaye, Alyson Best, Chris Haywood, Sarah Walker, Werner Herzog, Julia Blake, Bob Ellis) – Classic Movie Review 12,035

‘It is very difficult to see yourself as others see you… or to see yourself at all’ – Charles Bremer.’

The 1984 Australian erotic drama film Man of Flowers is a unique, moving film from the Dutch-born Australian director Paul Cox, with Norman Kaye as Charles Bremer, a middle-aged recluse threatened by brutish modern life. Charles finds erotic satisfaction in the beauty of art, flowers, music and and women undressing.

This mother-obsessed bachelor pays a weekly wage for nude modelling to Lisa (Alyson Best), who has a blackmailing artist boyfriend. While the young woman undresses for Charles, he listens to opera, including Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. He reads letters he has sent to his mother, who has long since died, and the letters turn out to be addressed to himself.

Man of Flowers may be slowly paced, but it is alive with rare feelings, crazy humour and adept visual symbolism.

Werner Herzog has a cameo in flashbacks as Charles’s father.

Also in the cast are Chris Haywood, Sarah Walker, Werner Herzog, Julia Blake, Bob Ellis, Barry Dickins, Patrick Cook, Victoria Eagger, Hilary Kelly, James Stratford, Eileen Joyce, Marianne Baillieu, Lirit Bilu, Juliet Bacskai, Dawn Klingsberg, and Tony Llewellyn-Jones.

Paul Cox and Chris Haywood decided to make a low-budget erotic film and later Bob Ellis was brought on to work on the script, providing the dialogue to Cox’s scenario. Ellis said he spent only nine hours on it because Cox did not want to spend any more time on it.

The movie was shot over three weeks.

It is one of seven film collaborations of Julia Blake and Paul Cox. They are Lonely Hearts’ (1982), ‘Man of Flowers’ (1983), ‘My First Wife’ (1984), ‘The Paper Boy’ episode of ‘Winners’ (1985), ‘Cactus’ (1986), ‘Innocence’ (2000), and ‘Human Touch’ (2004).

Paul Cox died on June 18, 2016 in Melbourne, age 76.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,035

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