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Man of Flowers (1983)

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clip Lisa and Lucia

Original classification rating: M. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

At the climax of a striptease given by Lisa (Alyson Best), Charles (Norman Kaye) unexpectedly gets up from his voyeur’s chair, walks briskly outside and heads towards the church across the road.

Curator’s notes

by Lynden Barber

This is the surprising and dramatic climax to the film’s memorable opening scene. Charles Bremer, a wealthy, retired aesthete, weekly pays an attractive young artist’s model to strip accompanied by a climactic section of the Donizetti opera Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), while he silently watches. Coming at the end of a sequence in which the camera movement is minimal and the takes are long, Charles’s sudden dashing from the room comes as an abrupt, even absurd, interruption – indicating that Charles is an eccentric and perhaps slightly disturbed individual.

Cox sets up the film’s key motifs of flowers, sex, music, beauty, art and religion so that they are inseparable. This is critical to the film’s meaning, since in Charles’s mind, nature and culture are merely two aspects of the same phenomenon.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

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