MAN OF FLOWERS Movie Review

Because of his strict, religious upbringing, Charles (Norman Kaye), a reclusive art collector has great and embarrassing difficulty coping with his sexual impulses. His (partial) solution is to pay a beautiful young woman—an artist's model—to disrobe in front of him once a week, though she's instructed to stop short of reaching compete nudity. As they begin learning a bit more about each other's troubled private lives, it becomes clear that they are going to mean a great deal more to each other than a simple, secretive business transaction. This remarkable and quietly startling film from Australia's Paul Cox seems to have slipped between the cracks as far as American distribution is concerned; it did play in a few theatres nationally, but it's never achieved the critical reputation that it deserves. This could be because the tone of Man of Flowers is so dark and elusive, and because the thread of voyeuristic humor contrasts so sharply with the deeply personal psychological pain experienced by the repressed man at the movie's center. Whatever the cause, Man of Flowers is ripe for rediscovery. The vulnerably dignified Norman Kaye is extraordinary as Charles, and there are disturbing flashback cameos by Werner Herzog as Charles's monstrous father.

NEXT STOP … My First Wife, A Woman's Tale, Monsieur Hire

1984 91 m/C AU Norman Kaye, Alyson Best, Chris Haywood, Sarah Walker, Julia Blake, Bob Ellis, Werner Herzog; D: Paul Cox; W: Bob Ellis, Paul Cox; C: Yuri Sokol; M: Gaetano Donizetti. Australian Film Institute ‘83: Best Actor (Kaye). VHS, LV ART, VES