Save your money for something good and enjoyable

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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

The film is remarkable in that it delves into the issue of sexual inversion - and how childhood events and parent relationships mark us for life. In the case of Charles, we see that his mother alternately enveloped him in her embrace and rejected him, and his father, a remote, humorless person, punished him for being a curious child. End result: he loves beauty deeply, but cannot consummate a relationship. The use of music, both the operatic excerpts and Charles's own playing of the church organ, was pointed and poignant. All actors turned in splendid performances. Norman Kaye was very believable in the title role, and Alyson Best as the young beauty who sees Charles for the decent, loving person he is does sound work. The rest of the ensemble is also to be commended for this picture of life and art's relationship to it.

A terrifically watchable film, so different from Hollywood style movies that stick to a set pattern. Funny, riveting and erotic in parts, this is a true classic that deserves wider recognition. Alyson Best's strip must be the best opening scene in any film!

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.