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With April showers (hopefully) behind us, here’s a bunch of movies to go with those May flowers.
The Hours (2002)
Before we meet Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman), Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) or Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep), three women of different eras who are all tied to Woolf’s novel “Mrs. Dalloway,” we catch a glimpse of the flowers that grace their respective homes. None will successfully brighten the days of these terminally downtrodden heroines, but at least one bouquet helps inspire Woolf’s opening line: “Mrs. Dalloway said she would by the flowers herself.”
Vertigo (1958)
Flowers are among the many colorful motifs in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece “Vertigo,” which includes an early scene that sees Madeleine (Kim Novak) purchasing a bunch of flowers she’ll later destroy — a moment many interpret as indicative of Novak’s complex, downward-spiral portrayal. And speaking of spirals, flowers can also be seen in Saul Bass’s iconic, hypnotic dream sequences.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
You can’t have a filmic floral list without Dorothy’s (Judy Garland) sleepy encounter with Oz’s poppy field, an enchanted bed of red that bleeds marvelously in Technicolor. To slow the heroine and her friends from making it to the titular Sorcerer, Margaret Hamilton’s Wicked Witch puts a spell on the buds, and only snow can revive the travelers to resume their journey.
American Beauty (1999)
This Best Picture winner may have wilted over time, but no one can deny the visceral power of its centerpiece (no pun intended) fantasy sequence, wherein Angela (Mena Suvari) swims and bathes in a sea of rose petals — the ultimate, jailbait-y sexual conquest of Lester (Kevin Spacey), father of Angela’s best frenemy, Jane (Thora Birch). Think Lolita, in literal bloom.
Horton Hears a Who! (2008)
Before “The Lorax” bewitched youngsters and longtime Dr. Seuss fans alike, this animated adaptation of the author’s most existential work proved that movies based on books by everyone’s favorite doc needn’t star Mike Myers or Jim Carrey in furry suits. Horton the elephant (Carrey) nabs a small flower with a speck on it — a speck that just happens to hold the entire world of Who-ville. Kids loved it. Adults’ minds were blown.
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