man of flowers is a 1983 australian film about an eccentric , reclusive , middle-aged man , charles bremer , who enjoys the beauty of art , flowers , music and watching pretty women undress .

werner herzog has a cameo role as bremer 's father .

the film was directed by paul cox and was screened in the un certain regard section at the 1984 cannes film festival .

man of flowers

man of flowers /  a film by paul cox ; a flowers international pty ltd production .
man of flowers [ videorecording ] / a film by paul cox ; a flowers international pty ltd production .
cox : but that is not a very optimistic statement in man of flowers .
man of flowers [ videorecording ] / a film by paul cox ; a flowers international pty ltd production . - version details - trove
cox : it certainly does help . the mad mixture in man of flowers worked very well . but man of flowers and lonely hearts are very serious films , in spite of their comic elements .
the title of the short story is somehow misleading . when reading the title “the man who loved flowers” , readers expect to read about a man who tends to his garden or about a man whose hobby is related to flowers .
man of flowers is an unbelievable commercial success on many levels . commercially , it will go much further than lonely hearts .
is it ?
charles asks .
i ' m not sure that a man who can ' t paint flowers can paint at all… van gogh painted flowers . . .
' ' man of flowers ' ' will be shown tonight at 9 : 30 and tomorrow at 6 : 15 p . m . as part of the new york film festival .
the short story “the man who loved flowers” by stephen king is structured around the walk of a young man in new york city . the man seems very happy and in love , but it is soon revealed that he is a murderer who has gone insane after the woman he loved has died years ago .
victoria duckett in her piece on the film for senses of cinema , available in full here , showed how well this strategy worked in reworking romanticism : paul cox ' s man of flowers .
an eccentric elderly man tries to enjoy the three things in life that he considers real beauty : collecting art , collecting flowers , and watching pretty women undress .
“this group art show accompanies the 12th annual green man festival . two - dimensional works in all media celebrate the theme of this year’s festival : the buds , blooms , and blossoms of flowers .
man of flowers brings an opening up at the end . it sounds a bit pretentious , but embrace the universe before you become all entangled up in your own crazy little life .
enker : on
lonely hearts
and
man of flowers
you worked with scriptwriters who are renowned for their comic talents , and in
man of flowers
you cast barry dickins and patrick cook , two satirists . it suggests a move away from the darker themes that have characterized your work and toward a flirtation with comedy . is that a deliberate shift in emphasis ?
cox : what is worse : total alienation or death ? charles in man of flowers is a doomed character . he looks at the world but never sees it . maybe his mind is slipping at the end .
a man who calls himself sal9000 has married his virtual girlfriend with a public reception , urltoken reported .
he ' s a nice , cultured middle aged man , lisa replies , and he ' s gentle .
production company : flowers international pty . ltd . ( there is no head presentation credit in the print viewed ) .
the rising action of the short story consists of the man standing in front of a flower vendor and pondering on whether to buy flowers for a woman called norma or not . while he thinks , the vendor’s radio broadcasts some news related to a criminal , the vietnam war , drugs , . . .
all three films were shot within a radius of five kilometers from where i live in melbourne . man of flowers cost $ 240 , 000 . i raised the last $ 80 , 000 by mortgaging my house . we went like mad and shot it in three weeks .
cox hit his career high point the following decade , with lonely hearts ( 1982 ) , man of flowers ( 1983 ) , my first wife ( 1984 ) and cactus ( 1986 ) cementing his reputation at home and abroad as australian cinema ' s foremost auteur .
in tom the dancing bug ,
flowers for trinitron
uses phlebotinum induced stupidity to create this trope . a television causes stupidity . a man is watching nypd blue when the cable goes out . the man , cut from tv , becomes gradually smarter over the next six days . he reads east of eden , volunteers at a homeless shelter , and shifts his handwriting from print to cursive . he is about to destroy his tv , when the cable comes back and wheel of fortune comes on . the man soon reverts to stupidity .
and the bottom line is that too much of ` ` man of flowers ` ` can be explained away by charles ` father . if only daddy hadn ` t been so cruel , well , then the movie wouldn ` t have a reason for existing at all . there would be no story .
the title of the episode comes from a line by catelyn stark to jaime lannister , the kingslayer :
you are a man without honor .
he found it equally painful that his work was not always as appreciated at home as he felt it should have been , but success never sat easily with him either . he said his most acclaimed film , man of flowers ,
ruined my life . it was in cannes and we were the toast of the town and it was horrible and [ leading man ] norman [ kaye ] and i had terrible nervous breakdowns .
the man reportedly fell in love with a virtual girl named nene anegasaki and plans to hold a public wedding reception in tokyo .
in fallout 2 there is an autistic weapons upgrader in the new reno arms basement who is a reference to and named after flowers for algernon .
frontman brandon flowers stars in the visual , playing various types of men . one lives in a trailer park and passes time shooting things and flexing his muscles , while another makes his living as a flashy las vegas performer . despite their contrasting lives and socioeconomic statuses , however , flowers shows they still share a number of the same insecurities and character flaws .
has operation : c . a . r . a . m . e . l . an episode centered on what basically amounted to flowers for algernon
at this point in his career , director paul cox made three films - lonely hearts , man of flowers and my first wife - that did good arthouse business , while being favourably received by many reviewers - and some rate this as the high water mark of his career ( though some also argue for a late blooming around the time of innocence in 2000 and human touch in 2004 .
man of flowers is both erotic and richly amusing , with a tragic after - glow . the essence of the story is the confrontation between modern art and traditional art ; or between modern love and traditional love ; or even between modern life and traditional life . the old world meets the new world and only the old , traditional world has any substance .
characters are known by the qualities that make up their personalities . it ' s who they are . in a flowers for algernon story a character either :
foreshadows this early on , when natalie mentions that her homework involves
flowers for algernon
. later , the show subverts this , when diana has medication
for whatever reason , australian filmmakers often avoid making films in – or directly about – australia’s major cities . looking at a list of the 100 highest grossing australian films ever and it becomes obvious that the outback , the bush , and outer - suburbia are more alluring to filmmakers . this is just another reason that cox , and man of flowers particularly , is even more of an anomaly . nestled within the confines of inner - city suburbs , this lends his films a more cosmopolitan allure that recalls woody allen’s use of new york as a narrative anchor . while the specific locations are never mentioned , cox uses the divide between an affluent upper - class suburb like toorak with the then scrappy artists den of fitzroy and brunswick to great effect . the distinct look of pre - gentrified inner - city suburbs to the soundtrack of rollicking trams in the background lends man of flowers a distinct sense of time and place that melbornians will get a special delight out of .
rugrats ,
smell of success
: a copy of flowers for algernon , except with chuckie having his severe allergies temporarily cured gaining his sense of smell , only for the cure to wear off . came complete with chuckie befriending the white lab mouse as homage .
cox : maybe you ' re right , but man of flowers pleads for a wider horizon in the way that we see the world . charles bremer is in the eyes of this world , a madman . yet he outsmarts the whole system . then he stands very quietly and looks out at the sky . you are forced to contemplate his fate , because it includes your own .
a man without honor
is the seventh episode of the second season of game of thrones . it is the seventeenth episode of the series overall . it premiered on may 13 , 2012 . it was written by david benioff & d . b . weiss and directed by david nutter .
much like chance , the peter sellers character in ` ` being there , ` ` charles bremer in the australian film ` ` man of flowers ` ` likes to watch . chance was retarded by constant exposure to television ; charles bremer has been retarded by a brutish father who punished charles as a boy for becoming sexually aroused by a buxom woman .
man of flowers , directed by paul cox ; screenplay by mr . cox and bob ellis ; photography , yuri sokol ; edited by tim lewis ; music by gaetano donizetti ; produced by jane ballantyne and mr . cox ; a spectrafilm release . at alice tully hall , as part of the 22d new york film festival . running time : 91 minutes . this film has no rating .
the leading character in paul cox ' s ' ' man of flowers ' ' is charles bremer ( norman kaye ) , a wealthy australian esthete who lives alone , studies drawing and flower arrangement , and writes frequent letters to his dead mother . his contact with others is rare , remote and more than a little ghoulish , as when he stands naked in his mirrored bathroom , speaking to a radio evangelist on his cordless telephone . he is asking if the evangelist doesn ' t share his feeling that flowers have a sensual allure .
meanwhile , charles is busy with his flower press , and yet another letter to mother advising that he ' s made an extensive study of the hearts of flowers , and that he ' s got the swimming pool , with a second hand dome .
it was a gaunt if upbeat cox who took the stage at the australian directors guild awards in may 2015 . in july , when his force of destiny – starring david wenham as a man who receives a liver transplant – opened the melbourne international film festival , it seemed the perfect send - off to a man who had made 32 features since arriving in the city 50 years earlier . and when friends and family gathered around him in august last year , they did so in the full expectation they were bidding farewell to this stubborn giant of a man .
do listen to “the man” at least twice before you make up your mind , because there’s a lot going on : the synth liftoff , the backup choir , the vocoder overdubs , the intently funky bass ( “funkier than anything we’ve ever done before , ” brandon flowers told bbc radio 1’s annie mac ) . unlike the godawful new incarnation of fall out boy , the killers know their way around around glammy disco - rock ; unlike arcade fire , who appear to be on some too - clever - by - half brazil rpg jaunt lately , they’re willing to embrace being corny about it . the hook is flowers proclaiming that he’s the man , man , and he sounds like he’s probably wearing spangled pants . he can still sell it , too : “i got a household name , ” he sings , and sure , that’s a lee - tle bit of a stretch , but he’s not wrong , either .
make a memorable impression with flowers that are fresh , bright , fragrant , and elegant for every occasion . we look forward to the opportunity to deliver our promise to you !
carrying out his shrink ' s suggestion , charles asks lisa and jane , who ' ve been swimming in his pool to touch each other , perhaps kiss . he ' s been aroused by music and flowers , but never by others , and he needs to see it being done . lisa ' s okay with it , she likes him and thinks he ' s a good man , but charles says he ' s only half a man . it ' s the right half , says lisa …
australia , 1983 genre : drama , romance , foreign language : english director : paul cox starring : norman kaye , alyson best , chris haywood , werner herzog what ' s it about ? an eccentric elderly man tries to enjoy the three things in life that he considers real beauty : collecting art , collecting flowers , and watching pretty women undress .
works cited : enker , debi , “paul cox” , cinema papers , july 1984 , issue 46 , pages 123 - 129 . fitzgerald , michael , “film’s man of flowers australian painter and sculptor asher bilu is the force behind director paul cox’s interior world” , time international ( south pacific edition ) 17 , ( may 2 , 2005 ) p . 61 gillard , garry . ten types of australian film , murdoch university , 2007 .
. . . although man of flowers opens with a view of this work in close up , we never otherwise see it in the film . the painting is instead introduced through the dialogue of “the man of flowers” ( bremer ) who explains , in a letter to his dead mother , how he “found some etchings and paintings father had hanging on the wall in his private room . i’d long thought you’d burnt them . the titian is still my favorite . i never understood why you so disliked it and kept saying how silly it was . ” led into the fantastic world of an eccentric man who says that a titian has been hung for private contemplation in suburban melbourne , we hear a host of related fictions : a titian painting might be burned ; a woman might think it silly , and so on . the point , i would argue , is not that cox presumes cultural ignorance or misogyny on behalf of the viewer . rather , cox comically elaborates titian’s general inaccessibility to audiences in melbourne . we might have the only titian in the southern hemisphere available to us in the national gallery of victoria , but the closest we might get to one of titian’s more provocative and familiar nudes might indeed be here , in a reproduction reinterpreted within the diegesis of a 35mm film .
enker : they are more optimistic than your earlier work . you still have initially passive characters who are victims of an insensitive , abrasive world , but in
lonely hearts
there is a sense of hope , a tentative reaching out , a beginning of communication and resolution that is more optimistic than in
inside looking out
or
the journey
. in
man of flowers
, charles ( norman kaye ) actually manages to control his environment , and to crush the elements that are disrupting his life …
surround your guests in a floral wonderland with beautiful centerpieces and decorations . fresh flowers add something special to any celebration . whether you want a casual gathering on the beach or a more formal evening event , flowers help set the mood . our designers will work with you to create the look you want for your special day . email or call us to set up a consultation today !
cox : norman kaye and i have had a very close relationship and we both grew into it . it was an accumulation of many years of sharing ideas . i wanted to make a film that i could basically finance myself because i was held up by others making decisions for more than a year on another project . wasting a year of my life was enough . i decided to write man of flowers quickly . i wrote the screenplay in a few days , then bob ellis came in and did a great job with the dialogue .
“the future of the industry should be in the hands of the filmmakers instead of the accountants and the finance people . ” cox
there is some small element of humor to ' ' man of flowers , ' ' as when charles attends the art class for which lisa poses ; he is ordered to ' ' take that vegetable matter off that poor girl ' ' after drawing lisa with leaves across her torso . much of it is deadly serious , however . the freudian flashbacks of a shifty - eyed young charles , his punishing father ( the brief , silent role of the father is played by werner herzog ) and his sexy mother seem very much in earnest . so do charles ' s walks through public parks in search of the erotic statuary he so admires .
why would you want to do that ?
asks charles , and she says she thinks he ' s a good man and wonderful .
next wednesday
, says charles .
you ' ve been there for him through thick and thin . this wedding won ' t be any different . here ' s what to know when you ' re a best man .
much has been made over paul cox’s career of his very european sensibilities . sure , many local filmmakers have taken influence from europe , especially in the 1980s as euro exoticism was a surefire path to indie arthouse success , but cox’s films never felt imitative in the way many others did . he treated subjects of sex , relationships , passion and eroticism , as well as death , art , and nature with a maturity that was never better exemplified than with man of flowers , which even played the cannes film festival , a rarity for an australian film then and now . this put him at odds with a local film culture , despite many of the things that critics and audiences would covet in films from europe being available in man of flowers . perhaps it was because as australia continued to carve out its own cinematic identity , cox’s work routinely butted heads against that . thankfully , these traits that made him unique but ostracised then are finally recognised today as what made him so valuable to australian film history .
stephen king’s short story follows the traditional plot elements : exposition , rising action , climax , falling action , and resolution . the ending of the story is open , as we do not know what will happen to the man next .
one of seven film collaborations of actress julia blake and writer - director paul cox . they are [ in order ] : ' 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 ) . during the 1980s , blake appeared in a cox film every year for five straight consecutive years between 1982 and 1986 .
the lawnmower man . a modern adaptation of the flowers for algernon story : a mentally - challenged gardener , jobe smith , is raised to super - human intelligence with the use of medication and virtual reality with unintended consequences . incidentally , it has nothing to do with the stephen king story of the same title . it ' s hinted that jobe would have inevitably gone crazy from the medication he was given initially , as it was a milder version of the one that dr . angelo had made for the government . when they switched the drugs , it simply sped up the process .
that the girl wants to protect the painter makes little sense and is one of the most annoying elements in ` ` man of flowers . ` ` the film ` s other problem is one of repetition . at least three times director paul cox gives us charles ` painful , sex - related childhood memories in the form of home movies . we see his arousal and his father punishing him . these sequences , also accompanied by donizetti ` s music , are quite touching by themselves , but as edited into the film they seem like the director ` s only trick to regain our interest .
but when david turns up clutching a large , child - like painting of flowers , he discovers a note from charles asking him to go around to the right , to his studio . as david moves through the darkness , he and his painting are suddenly flattened by a projectile from an art work , and charles is back pounding at the church organ . then it ' s time to head back to the coppershop man to enquire about that bronzing process …
the ending of the short story comprises the falling action and the resolution . the falling action presents the young man leaving the dark alley sometime after he has murdered the woman . he is depicted as being still optimistic about finding norma . . .
paul cox seeded man of flowers with what might be called ' art bait for critics ' - including a painting by titian , a donizetti opera on the soundtrack , a postcard of figures gazing into the distance , the murderer erecting a broznze statue containing his victim ' s corpse titled
the origin of art
, and various jokes about art , including but not limited to pedantic art class teachers , and rope whip and spray gun action painting , while at the same time making a
blue
movie , laced with erotica for genteel viewers .
enker : in describing
the journey
you once said it
is about the potential of the mind , the sadness , the wastage , the incredible pathetic nature of a man who has so much ability and so much to offer , but who is so screwed up about his past . that ' s one thing one has to learn in life - being able to put aside the past .
( cinema papers , no . 13 , july 1977 , p . 94 ) . yet , in
man of flowers
, charles and david are seen to be living in the past : one is basking in past glories and the other is repressed by incidents in his past . does that imply that it is impossible to put the past aside ?
in scott aaronson ' s short story on self - delusion and bounded rationality , the protagonist ilyssa does the second half to herself , even explicitly referencing flowers for algernon in case the audience didn ' t get it .
however , anyone already in possession of the us edition - like ozmovies - might be disinclined to fork out the $ 35 for private disc use , to which must be added $ 9 . 30 in postage and $ 4 . 34 in gst . man of flowers is an enjoyable enough movie , but only paul cox enthusiasts will rate it as a $ 48 . 73 dvd ( price current january 2015 for domestic use ) , or perhaps perverts , anxious to do a norman kaye and get as sharp a view of alyson best ' s striptease as possible .
well , not as vast as it might have been . i ' ve got about 33 scripts in drawers that weren ' t made and films that were made that irritate me a bit in how they differed from what was intended : man of flowers ; there ' s a shocking film called winds of jarrah which , would you believe , started out as a very good script and only about one sentence of it survived ; another similar one which was eventually called ebb tide , which was a really terrific chandleresque film noir that bears no resemblance to the eventual film .
` ` man of flowers ` ` is striking to look at , both for its visuals and for the offbeat behavior it presents . the model has a lesbian girlfriend , and her character is presented in a surprisingly credible and natural manner . and our attitude toward charles does evolve . at first we pity him ; later we appreciate that he appreciates beautiful things , albeit at a distance . however , a concluding melodrama involving the addicted painter doesn ` t work at all .
last weekend , the killers delivered a hits - filled surprise set at glastonbury 2017 . the band is back today with a new music video for “the man” , the lead single off upcoming album wonderful wonderful .
the first thing a piece of sculpture should be is something you like to touch , to run your hands like a blind man over it , remember it . the increasingly agitated david doesn ' t want to listen to all this rubbish . if charles wants to avoid a scandal and the attention of the victorian vice squad , he should just hand over the money and piss off . but you can ' t paint flowers , charles says , and there ' s nothing he can do to help david , bidding him good afternoon .
in the frisky dingo episode
flowers for nearl ,
xander crews ' retarded twin brother is turned into a mastermind through an injection of
brain chemical .
when he is fatally shot ( because the plot was getting to complicated , ) he reverts to his old speech pattern for his last half - second of life .
. com is a member of billboard music , a division of billboard - hollywood reporter media group .
the six million dollar man — jaime sommers ' first appearance in the show gave her bionics , then apparently ended with her death because her body rejected them . ( of course , she was revived and re - empowered when the network discovered she ' d make a good spinoff , but that was outside of the realm of the original episode ' s plot . )
the boyhood memories in man of flowers are rooted in cox ' s childhood .
it was grim ,
cox said ,
like an ingmar bergman movie .
cox ' s father , wim cox , made features and documentaries .
with the war , my father lost all his equipment , lost his career ,
cox recalled .
he was very bitter . he didn ' t have the strength to rebuild his life . he discouraged me from following in his footsteps in the same profession .
the man doesn ' t have anything big , but believes there ' s a market for it , and notes charles could have his grandmother encased in bronze and standing in the hallway , the living room or the bedroom , anywhere he liked , but the body would have to be embalmed first . if we did it like the new guineans do , and keep the dead at home , the man suggests , it would save the council a vast amount of space .
think about it
.
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it was marvellous to have him around at the time of the decision to go ahead with man of flowers because one needs extraordinary courage . it was a difficult decision and a great risk , and one cannot really think about it too much . you just throw yourself into it . werner certainly has that quality and i am sure he had something to do with my final decision to go ahead with the film . when we needed somebody to play the father , i sent him a telex saying ,
it is either you or me ; it can ' t be anybody else .
during the course of the film , we slowly learn the source of charle’s little sexual ritual ; its effect on the ambitions of david and his eventual complex fate .
cox : …persistence is an essential quality of filmmakers , especially a fairly private sort of filmmaker such as myself .
that’s assuming he’s talking about himself at all , though—the captial - m man , in the “keeping me down” sense , feels more omnipresent than ever . “the man” gets a lot better when you start believing it’s narrated by the villain , and that the killers are subtly shimmying some kind of truth to power—because on the surface , the lyrics are pretty cliché . if you were to point to a guy on the street and ask for a freestyle based on the concept “i’m the man , ” he’d have 50 / 50 odds of coming up with something like , “i got gas in the tank / i got money in the bank . ” it’s almost enough to make you miss “are we human / or are we dancer ? ” ( editor’s note : i always miss “are we human / or are we dancer ? ” )
right then : “the man” is a bop . it would sound fan - fucking - tastic in a roller rink . it might even make it on radio . killers lp5 , wonderful wonderful , coming soon . follow fox footy for more .
projectiles back in place in his outdoor artwork , charles writes in another note to his mother that even flowers have a negative side to them , and that david almost crushed his
little flower
, but the man in the shop did such fine work that he suggested that the statue be given to the public . it now stands in a park , the city council thought it a wonderful gesture , charles writes , and it ' s nice that the bremer family name will now be remembered .
as charles prepares to take a bath , he listens to a tape with an american voice explaining that god approves of his sexuality and his sexual being . he can get a copy of
the female figure in religious art
by sending off to a po box number . charles telephones to ask if god would approve of someone who saw flowers as sensually arousing , tender , loving beings . the american voice wants to know what he does to flowers , and when charles says he paints and draws them , smells them and sometimes holds them , the american voice asks if he ' s putting him on :
brother you ' re in need of a special prayer . your name is on the list , along with the other unfortunates
.
so it was just a happy convergence of preferences arrived at very suddenly under a whole lot of pressure , which is often the best way to work - as a lot of people will tell you , including the makers of casablanca .
a celebration of one of australia ' s distinctive female directors , whose films are available now at sbs on demand .
online presence : being that this film was made in the 80’s , the online presence is limited . most of the information i found was on the international movie database and rotten tomatoes . i was only able to find one interview online with paul cox and it is listed above . besides these brief reviews , the only other mention online is advertising for the dvd . urltoken man of flowers review by denis schwartz from ozuz ' world movie review “this is a well - conceived and intelligently provocative , lyrical film about how fantasies can enrich our lives and how damning loneliness can be . it handles the theme of loneliness as well as it ever has been handled on the screen . ” urltoken urltoken urltoken
as cox explains , however , it was not friedrich who specifically inspired this final image , but a postcard he had pinned to his wall ( 22 ) . the reproduction that he provides in his autobiography of this image shows four men dressed in black , each sporting a derby hat . there are some rocky dunes , a huge flock of gulls , and an open sky . the ocean is not visible ; we merely presume its presence because the gulls are circling and the men are clearly looking at something . while a note may be made of the way in which friedrich’s metaphysical symbolism has been replaced by a satire on bourgeois ubiquity ( and hence the men in the bowler hats have replaced the endless “space” of the sea ) , my point is that cox has not recreated a tableaux vivant of this postcard , but has instead recreated a romantic painting . as cox himself explains , “at the end of man of flowers this image becomes the painting , the mirror of life” ( 23 ) .
jane ballantyne had raised $ 240 , 000 to make man of flowers . ' we shot in three weeks , ' says cox . ' we had very little film stock . the house we used belonged to asher bilu , the production designer . ' chris haywood recalls that cox wanted some exceptionally long takes : ' there ' s a scene with norman kaye in the studio where my character lives , and that was done with a long , complex shot which travels right through the studio . that was about three pages of dialogue , and learning lines isn ' t my forte - i ' m too lazy . but it worked very well . '
charles says he dreams about flowers , and the sceptical shrink asks if he ' s still writing to his mother . every day , says charles , explaining that he posts the letters to himself and then reads them back . it helps him remember things and expands his mind .
there were obviously not just these three titian venus paintings available for cox to choose between in this opening sequence , there were many . among these – and most famously – is titian’s earlier venus of urbino ( 1538 ) . there is also the venus titian finished about a decade later when he first changed the figure of this slender girl to that of a mature woman , and reversed the pose so that she reclines on the right of the frame ( venus , c . 1545 - 1548 ) , and his sacred and profane love ( 1515 ) which , as erwin panofsky notes , was originally identified as the two venuses ( 3 ) . there were also the two venus with a lute player portraits which immediately followed the organ player series , and titian’s more famous flora ( c . 1515 ) , a portrait which tallies well in terms of both the subject and title of man of flowers . why , then , did cox choose the third and final venus in a series of three venus and organ paintings as his starting point ? why this particular frame of reference ?
that was mine , and my wife wrote a bit of it , too . you needed the catholic thing because of the politics of the time . the overwhelming event of the 50s among those who remember it was the communist dissolution bill and the threat and , to some extent , the actuality of mccarthyism
the man born paulus henrique benedictus cox in the netherlands on april 16 , 1940 , arrived in melbourne in 1965 . he was a photographer and taught the craft at the prahran college of advanced education . in the mid - 1960s he began making short films . in 1976 , he made his first feature , illuminations .
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one justice league of america arc has a hyper - dimensional force separate the league and their secret identities into different beings , allowing the heroes to be full - time heroes and the civilian - modes to have normal lives . two of them were not happy about this . plastic man ' s normal self eel o ' brian , a one - time thug , found himself trying to resist the desire to start stealing and beating people up again , wanting plastic man back so he wouldn ' t be stuck being a thug who remembered being a hero for the rest of his life . when talking about this to martian manhunter ' s civilian identity john jones , he even mentioned flowers for algernon . bruce wayne and batman didn ' t fare too well either : the anger that made bruce into batman stayed with bruce , causing batman to lose all motivation to be a crime fighter and bruce to lose control and start getting violent because he no longer had an outlet for his anger .
alyson best………lisa chris haywood………david sarah walker…………jane julia blake……………art teacher bob ellis…………… . . . psychiatrist barry dickens……… . . . postman patrick cook………… . copper shop man victoria eagger……… . angela werner herzog……… . . the father hilary kelly………… . . . mother james stratford……… . . young charles
when charles arrives , david ' s in flagrante with a woman angela ( victoria eaggers ) , and then explains that his paintings are an attempt to express the turmoil of modern existence . charles asks him if he ' s got any real paintings .
how do you mean , real paintings ?
david asks .
i mean landscapes , flowers , i do like flowers
, says charles …
well eh , there if i may say so charles , i mean you show your ignorance as to where art is at at this present time . i mean ( looking around his studio ) , this is it …
i first saw this film in 1992 , a video rental . i found the story haunting and sad , a lonely man carrying a load of baggage from his childhood surrounds himself with art , flowers , and hires an artist model to strip for him while he listens to opera . the opera is donizetti ' s
lucia de lammermoor
, the music increases the haunting effect of the film , it is really beautiful . after seeing the film i became an avid fan of donizetti and have collected his operas and music since . i was extremely pleased when i found the film for sale on amazon , but i do not think i would have invested £92 . 95 plus delivery , the £30 i paid was i feel a good investment .
charles wakes from the nightmare to meet the postman , who is pleased charles has resolved his issues with the gas board , though the postman thinks it ' s a hard moral question as to how far you go compromising with the obscene world around you … ( the postman explains he once knew of a man who had carnal knowledge with the necks of decapitated gooses he would then eat for supper boiled in benedictine , a man who wouldn ' t compromise though maybe he should have , before the postman announces he ' s quitting next week , leaving charles to brood about the thoughts , and especially the dreams , that can take up your whole life ) .
to the sounds of donizetti , head credits appear over a titian painting of a lecherous organist contemplating venus and a small dog .
done well , this is about accepting your limitations and making the most of what you have instead of relying on artificial enhancements .
catherine clément , opera , or the undoing of women , university of minnesota press , minneapolis , 1988 , p . 89 .
founded in 1999 , senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional , high quality film - related content on the internet .
filmed : middle 1983 . the film replaced bob ellis ' s screenplay for the nostradamus kid in the cox slate . that film was still advertised as being in pre - production in the may - june 1983 cinema papers ' production survey ( ellis later directed the film himself in 1990 ) , yet when finance for the nostradamus kid couldn ' t be found , man of flowers was quickly devised to replace it . the film was shot in three weeks , and also post - produced very quickly , with editing taking three weeks , so that the film could be screened as the final one in the july 1983 melbourne film festival .
a whirlwind tour of europe through the tales of celebrated filmmakers . all movies are available to stream right now at sbs on demand .
mr . cox , who directed and co - wrote the film ( and who previously directed ' ' lonely hearts ' ' ) , brings a hint of the macabre to charles , his fascination with lisa , and his contact with the loutish , over - the - hill ' ' action ' ' painter ( chris haywood ) who is lisa ' s lover . so does mr . kaye , who plays the role with a measured politeness that makes charles ' s unrequited longings all the more noticeable . ' ' man of flowers ' ' has glimmers of both satire and potential horror , but its prevailing tone , while somber , seems more than a little silly . even mr . cox ' s intentional humor threatens to run away with whatever compassion charles ' s loneliness is meant to arouse .
after playing with an art work featuring a detached tongue , charles heads off to a shop staffed by a coppershop man ( patrick cook ) and asks if he has any large bronze statues of naked young women :
how large ?
oh life size … in a victorian pose … demure … perhaps on a pedestal that turns around
.
as best man , you may think you ' re just a glorified groomsman , but guess what ? you actually have special responsibilities - - you ' ll be a combination valet and hand - holder as you help the groom come through this nerve - racking experience with flying colors . as leader of the groom ' s posse , you ' ll :
man of flowers opens with a shot of titian painting . initially , however , we can only see some organ pipes and a distant garden ; a viewer would have to be knowledgeable in renaissance art to realise , before the camera begins to move , that this is a fragment of the artist’s venus with an organ player ( madrid , prado , c . 1550 ) . moreover , since there are three venus with an organ player paintings , it is not until the camera pans right , towards the head of the organist , that we realise that this is titian’s third and last painting with this title . what is interesting about this choice of canvas is that it is unsigned . we can deduce it is a titian ; style , composition and genre all indicate that even if titian did not paint the canvas alone , it was at least from his workshop . what this means , not only in terms of artistic collaboration but also in terms of introducing variants to a common theme , will play itself out in the development of cox’s later work . for now , however , it is enough to realise that the work is famous but hardly a turning - point in the development of titian’s career .
charles bremer ( norman kaye ) , a reclusive collector of paintings , sculptures and other rnore delicate works of art , such as rare flowers and naughty postcards , each wednesday takes lisa ( alyson best ) , an artists’ model , to his sumptuous house and pays her handsomely to do a striptease to the ‘love duet’ from ‘donnizetti’s lucia di lammermoor’ . he then leaves quickly and plays the organ alone in the church across the road from his house .
subverted in the
flowers for charlie
episode of it ' s always sunny in philadelphia . charlie is the subject of an experiment where he takes intelligence pills which appear to make him much smarter ( he learns mandarin in two days and starts speaking english more formally ) but cause headaches and other pains as side effects . the end of the episode reveals that the pills were actually placebos and charlie didn ' t get any smarter , he just became extremely arrogant and the side effects were all in his head .
an episode of lois and clark features as the villain of the week a group of kids and teens that had become super - smart because of a stolen serum . as the episode goes on , it turns out that the serum ' s effect is temporary and their desperation to not go back to normal escalates , endangering all of metropolis .
some people have no recollection of their past . i use the wealth of information about my past in my films . i was brought up as a catholic . there was a lot of pain , a lot of alienation , a lot of love and a lot of strange intensities that i didn ' t understand . but they have slowly fallen into place , and now i use it . it is marvellous .
stylistically cox ' s intuitive filmaking ( sic ) was an enormous challenge for me as a cinematographer . with an aesthetic eye and fine tuning to performance , especially emotional action , he adopted a very bold intensity and essence in one , or at most three takes . frequently he ' d be happy with the first take and refuse to opt for more . i tried , especially in the early days , to plead with him but he was adamant ; he was so confident he didn ' t need extra cutaways or other angles . one has to admire that boldness of vision , especially as within the camera moves he wanted a variety of shots to combine in a very carefully choreographed synchronization of movement of camera and actors . the opening strip scene in man of flowers was an eight - and - a - half minute take , the central argument in my first wife lasts 10 minutes , with the camera starting from the window at night , coming onto the bed and out the other side of the bed in one take .
flowers for matthew
: matthew drinks what he thinks is a intelligence - boosting drink and becomes smart through the placebo effect . paradoxically , his intelligence eventually drives him to understand that the drink has no actual chemical effect , at which point the placebo stops working on him and he rapidly returns to his original state .
analysis the man who loved flowers thorough analysis of the story the main character the setting and atmosphere spring time new york beautiful early evening
the air was soft and beautiful , the sky was darkening by slow degrees from blue to the calm and lovely violet of dusk .
- setting changes - late evening
now the stars were out , gleaming softly , and the lane was dark and shadowy , lined with vague shape of garbage cans .
dark , shadowy street fading light garbage cans narrow lane foreshadowing news on the radio
. . . a hammer murderer was still on the loose . .
touching
the something
in his coat pocket the main character calls himself love
. . . her name had not been norma but he knew what his name was . it was . . . was love .
he ' s a young man dressed in a light grey suit , narrow tie , top collar button undone dark , cut short hair , light blue eyes far from rich in love seems very normal is in reality insane a murderer the ending plot twist love story ? author •the setting and atmosphere •the main character •foreshadowing of the ending •the ending the ending foreshadowing the setting and atmosphere
the girl would like to have more of a relationship with charles , but charles can only watch . still , that ` s preferable to the girl ` s sometime boyfriend , a cocaine - addicted modern painter who is a poor man ` s jackson pollock , traipsing around his studio , splattering his canvases with paint and then beating them with a brush and his shoes .
david is waiting for lisa after class as charles says good night to his little flower .
who ' s that creep ?
david wants to know .
looks like something someone found in tolstoy ' s garbage bin
. he ' s a nice man , he knows everything about the history of art , says lisa , but david isn ' t impressed .


ratboy is a 1986 american drama film directed by and starring sondra locke .

the make-up effects were designed by rick baker .

the film 's scenario is at times comic or serious , and one of its peculiarities is that there never is any explanation for ratboy 's origin and existence as a human-rat hybrid .

ratboy had a troubled production and was both a critical and commercial failure .

however , it received better reviews in european countries , especially france , winning the deauville american film festival .

ratboy

1 . my sisters boyfriend is a goth , i dont know why she hangs around with that ratboy . 2 . have a shower ratboy ! 3 . fuck off ratboy !
and could forget dear ratboy . . . | bootleg bart | know your meme
while she has an awakening , ratboy’s destiny is to… better watch the film .
ratboy and phil are kept in the warehouse where the drugs are being stored and pressured to admit any part they might have had in the theft . ratboy is afraid of being tortured by
if you want to answer the questions ,
who starred in the movie ratboy ?
and
what is the full cast list of ratboy ?
then this page has got you covered .
this cast list of who was in ratboy includes both lead and minor roles . ( 10 items )
ratboy a fed ? that is the most ridiculous comment anyone could make . 2014 - 12 - 02t23 : 22 : 12z
ratboy cast list , listed alphabetically with photos when available . this list of ratboy actors includes any ratboy actresses and all other actors from the film . you can view additional information about each ratboy actor on this list , such as when and where they were born . to find out more about a particular actor or actress , click on their name and you ' ll be taken to page with even more details about their acting career . the cast members of ratboy have been in many other movies , so use this list as a starting point to find actors or actresses that you may not be familiar with .
ryan dorin , the creator of ratboy genius , talks to joe martin for wobc 91 . 5 fm oberlin college radio .
ratboy offers a lot of information about hollywood . . . as long as the rangers buy something from him , like condoms .
cowman and ratboy
is an episode from back at the barnyard from season 1 . it aired on october 6 , 2007 .
player 1 : hey man , stop dying . ratboy ( annoying voice ) : shaddap you cun mu & apos ; faka piece of crap shit whore ! player 1 : you are a ratboy ! i will find you and i will kill you and your family for having raised such a waste of energy . ratboy ( sobbying ) : mommy ! daddy ! the man was rude ! * squeak * * squeak *
sondra locke greatly appreciated two things about ratboy : there’s one scene where nikki and ratboy blow bubbles together . it was secretly written by gordon anderson the day before they shot it . eastwood liked that scene a lot and praised it . he told locke it was his favorite scene in the movie . he didn’t know that anderson had written it . another secret participation of gordon anderson was as the voice of ratboy .
ratboy ’s director admits that the film’s ultimate fate was mixed . it was better received in europe , where people seemed to get the point .
ratboy is sent with tig as father and son to a nazi farm to do some digging on the guys that cut up unser . using old enemy but now ally darby as a tool for finding the farm , tig and ratboy head in and earn the trust of the goons . after juice and darby getting caught and held at gunpoint , ratboy thinks fast and takes a hostage allowing everyone to escape before dumping the hostage off the truck .
topics : story telling , surrealism , music from rbg chapter 2 , the voices of ratboy ' s kindom , shift from 2d - 3d characters .
later , in the episode sweet and vaded , ratboy becomes a fully patched samcro member , having kept his word to jax about events in earlier seasons .
move over spidey , get back in your cave batman , and keep your glasses on clark kent , there’s a new superhero in town . future ratboy .
so locke was on the right path . eastwood thought baird was wrong for the part ; it was supposed to be “ratboy not ratgirl ! ” and he claimed he could tell the creature’s neck was that of a female… sondra locke’s reaction is hilarious : “who knew what the neck of a ratboy looked like , anyway ? ”
this is quite a great interview . if you ' re looking for interesting info on the show and the future of ratboy genius i ' d recommend watching part 3 .
ratboy appears for the first time in season 4 and is responsible for guarding the first shipment of cocaine the club receives along with fellow prospect filthy phil , new samcro member eric miles and rafi from the mayans oakland chapter . when some of the shipment is stolen ratboy and the other guards are the main suspects despite juice being the true culprit .
ratboy is shown to be very loyal to the club . as jax puts it he knows when to shut up , but when he does talk it is usually very insightful .
ratboy
is a perplexing movie about a perplexing hero - a little creature that is half human and half rat and combines all of the least interesting characteristics of both species .
ratboy holds onto the clubs guns in a van while they are pulled over by some eden cops . after a highspeed chase breaks out ratboy opens the van door and drives along next to juice allowing him to dive from the stolen police bike he took into the van . the pair pleased with themselves escape with the others as the police in pursuit crash off the road .
some comparisons have been made between ratboy and daniel mann’s willard , in which locke starred in 1971 . the director didn’t think of any parallels at the time she directed her own film .
although he is now a fully patched member , ratboy is still occasionally hazed and given tasks that other samcro members would rather not do , and is usually paired up with tig on jobs . it is also revealed that he is entering a relationship with brooke putner . perhaps the biggest role ratboy accidentally plays in the club is when he is kidnapped , along with t . o . cross , by moses cartwright . rat and t . o . are brought to the same place bobby was tortured and are both punched in the face multiple times . ratboy stays loyal by not saying anything the entire time . tyler frees rat and t . o . after the latter
gives up
the location of samcro ' s cabin to moses , which ends up being a trap for moses and mark ' s hit squad . jax and the other members of samcro express to ratboy that they are proud of him for going along with the plan , even though his kidnapping wasn ' t supposed to happen . in the series finale , ratboy brings t . o . in to be patched into samcro , teasing him for his real name taddarius . later , ratboy is part of the vote that determines jax ' s fate . along with the rest of samcro , ratboy is sad to lose jax as a leader .
“rick was very inclusive of me in the original design of how ratboy would look . i made a few requests , but rick is a very gifted makeup artist and designer and was 95 % right on track with what i imagined ratboy should look like . today a lot more could be done with cgi – ratboy’s facial movements etc . – , but given the limits of prosthetics at the time i was very happy . of course , the on - set makeup artists went through many hours of torment every morning of the production to get their makeup applied . ”
ratboy in some ways tries to ask the question as to what the thing really is . half human and half rat but which of the two is he more of out of the other .
she cast sharon baird to play ‘ratboy’ . baird was a “professional for many years who had been one of the original mousketeers on the mickey mouse club . since then , she had had a lot of experience in various children’s shows working in hot costumes and heavy makeup , similar to what would be required for ratboy . also , she was very small , the perfect size” , writes locke in her book .
nikki’s plan , which just drips with that ronald reagan - era love of materialism , is to simply put ratboy before the public and watch the money roll in like gangbusters . when marketing executives , talent scouts , and agents ask just how ratboy can be sold as an image , her mind goes blank . she just assumes a rat - child will be a sensation , prompting the creation of ratboy t - shirts , movies , and commercials . to put it bluntly , nikki is an idiot . she’s cruel , money - grubbing , and downright despicable . and she’s supposed to be one of the better characters !
i began by saying
ratboy
was perplexing . one of the things that puzzled me was why locke wanted to make this story in this way . she plugs a fantastical creature into a screenplay made up of standard - issue hollywood characters and situations , and ends everything with a chase rather than an emotional resolution . what was the point ?
ratboy
is very odd , but not in an interesting way .
she never forgot the sneak preview of ratboy in seattle . feeling exposed and anxious , she called it an “excruciating” experience . but locke would always be proud of ratboy in spite of its shortcomings . it’s an uneven film . in the cropped pan & scan vhs version , the sound is bad and the image is not so good . but obviously , because of the animosity between wb , clint and sondra locke , the film still wasn’t available on dvd for years . i can’t see any other reason . wb have so much rubbish on dvd , with extras and director’s cuts… ratboy , which really deserved to be restored , wasn’t .
instead , the film turns into an attack on the crass commercialism of modern american society , with special emphasis on the media . sondra locke , who directed the film , stars as a slick operator who hopes to benefit from her friendship with ratboy . she meets him by posing as a reporter , but before long she ' s a full - fledged promoter , renting a los angeles theater so ratboy can have his own press conference .
direction - wise , locke is capable of great atmospheric scenes , as when ‘nikki’ meets ‘ratboy’ . it shows a lot of promise . the ending is also sweet . it’s a film that really deserves a wider audience .
in this new adventure , future ratboy sees a surprising new side to his enemy , evil dr x , goes on a journey to the centre of the earth and faces a race against time to find the missing thingy .
it turns , instead , into a formula thriller - in which ratboy and his protector , locke , are arrayed against a mixed bag of bad guys , and the movie cops out by ending in a big chase scene .
locke was exhilarated by this response . she called eastwood from france , telling him ratboy had had a standing ovation . the reply was a silence followed by a mumble : “that’s good . so when are you coming home ? ”
ratboy blends several themes and styles ; it shows society’s indifference and hypocrisy , the search for the spotlight which remains prescient and supposedly will resolve every issue in people’s lives . it shows how being different stands out in this shadowy game .
george ' ratboy ' skogstrom is a member of samcro on the fx original series sons of anarchy . played by german actor niko nicotera , ratboy makes his debut on the episode
out
in the series ' fourth season . playing a recurring role through the series ' fourth , fifth , sixth , and seventh seasons , he was last seen in the series ' finale episode ,
papa ' s goods
, in the series ' seventh , and final , season .
the making of ratboy was a constant struggle : eastwood didn’t allow script changes , refused to allow locke to hire david alan grier ; interfered with the use of at least one location locke wanted ( nikki’s house ) . the director explains :
as flawed as it may be , ratboy is a fable that will endure – a testimony of what sondra locke could achieve as a director . ( she made it plainer with impulse , but she also had more control with impulse … )
ryan dorin , the creator of ratboy genius , talks to joe martin for wobc 91 . 5 fm oberlin college radio . topics for this portion include use of minecraft in previous and future work , origin of ratboy genius and summer solstice baby , early reception on youtube ,
potato knishes
, happyman on the radio , happyman hiatus , galactic superheroes , what ' s next for rbg , other music besides rbg , gattaca , popularity of rbg . note : this is an audio interview .
overhearing of a mysterious ratboy , it ' s nikki morrison played by sondra locke on the scene . saying she ' s a journalist she really isn ' t one but a window dresser thinking this could be her chance in order to exploit his uniqueness to the public . while she successfully befriends him the ratboy who she names eugene played by sharon baird develops an emotional feeling for her . asking her brothers played by gerrit graham and louie anderson to look after him and thug manny played by robert townsend…
i had a moment while watching ratboy where a very important question came to mind : where in the world did this movie come from ? to justify this film’s existence by saying it came during the ‘80s , a decade which was fraught with oddity at every turn , is too simple an explanation . ratboy seems to have come out of another dimension , a reality totally separate from the one we as mankind have ever known . it’s a fascinating movie to stew over , but thoroughly depressing to actually watch .
a department store window dresser is out of work when she meets a young man who has the face of a rat . she decides that if she can turn this ratboy into a celebrity they will get rich , but they encounter a series of misadventures .
ratboy also got great reviews from le monde , liberation , le figaro , pariscope and cahiers du cinema . europe , without knowing any of the battles involved , embraced the film , something which often happens with american filmmakers turned expatriates in an artistic sense .
ratboy is a rather unconventional and damned spoof of other human aberration films like elephant man and freaks , well , at least that what i think considering how indecipherable this ratsploitation was handled by first time director sandra locke . perhaps her rodent compulsion goes back as far to 1971 when she co - starred with bruce davison in the rat - classic willard . apparently , ratboy was well received in france ( winning the deauville american film festival ) and would probably would work well as a co - feature with ratatouille nowadays .
patrick mcgilligan calls ratboy “an odd fable about a half - rodent freak of nature , in prospect , a comic cross between e . t . and the elephant man ” . ( patrick mcgilligan , clint : the life and legend , p . 380 . )
throughout the years , the majority of eastwood’s fans were quick to dismiss ratboy as a bad film . the film has a high rating on amazon , despite the vhs version available for years , and which the director considered “terrible” . sondra locke told wand’rin’ star :
during the spring of 1986 , sondra locke was filming ratboy while clint was busy with his campaign to be elected mayor of carmel . he was so involved in the city’s problems that he had nickname in town , “the phantom of carmel” . ratboy was a test to both locke and eastwood . when we see the film now , it appears that the only effort he did was to ruin it as best as he could , while locke was trying to make it as best as she could , struggling with all the personal and professional pressures involved .
next they are locked in a room together and told that only one will be allowed out alive . eventually clay orders their murders but juice intervenes and kills miles then frames him for the theft . ratboy and phil are released and tasked with burying miles under happy ' s supervision .
this is no small point . the man in charge of the makeup in ratboy was rick baker , who’d won an oscar five years before for his groundbreaking work in an american werewolf in london . locke was thrilled when he accepted the job . she has good memories of this collaboration :
“there were several elements which drew me to the script of ratboy . i grew up loving fairy tales , and ratboy is a sort of modern day fairy tale . it has a mixed tone of comedy and drama , a tone i love in a film . it is set in hollywood with a theme of false values , and i had long observed hollywood as being a center of false values . and finally , it is about being different , not fitting in . this is something i personally felt and understood from childhood , growing up in a small town in tennessee . ”
make no mistake , this kind of premise is the stuff of nightmares , and ratboy is exceedingly dark from the outset . i’ve never seen a film so determined to make the human race seem completely without merit , a movie populated by people so callous and deplorable you want to lock them up for life . there’s a sequence at a party where ratboy becomes disoriented from the aforementioned alcohol , and the room spins in a hallucinogenic manner as drunken laughter and distorted faces fly across the screen . i’ll ask this again : who made this film ? who wants me to be this depressed ?
by not sticking to its through line and tacking on a cutsey - wootsey ending , ratboy made me feel i had wasted my time . as a whole it is nothing more than a strange example of filmmaking and storytelling , with thinly written characters played by barrel - scraping actors who move through a wafer thin plot . i apologize if this sounds like a complicated perspective , but i can’t help but feel of two minds . like a lot of movies in my collection , ratboy is just weird and dumb enough to reserve a permanent seat , but not nearly entertaining enough to warrant a second look .
in spite of its commercial failure , her work and ratboy ’s reviews impressed the top executives at wb at the time , and she was encouraged to follow that path . locke put three other projects in development with wb . these projects were all dropped when locke and eastwood split a few years later .
topics include : use of mincraft in previous and future work , origin of ratboy genius and summer solstice baby , early youtube reception ,
potato knishes ,
happyman on the radio , happyman hiatus , galactic superheroes , what ' s next for rbg , other music , gattaca , popularity of rbg .
when a bolt of lightning hits colin lamppost ( and his toy bird , bird ) , he is zapped millions of years into the future ! life will never be the same again . bird has been brought to life as not bird and colin’s dna is fused with a rat giving him superkeel powers . future ratboy is born !
this drama follows an unlikely
ratboy
( s . l . baird ) after he is discovered living in a makeshift shelter in a garbage dump . along comes nikki morrison ( sondra locke , also the director ) who meets the half - rodent , half - human creature and takes him over . she talks to a hollywood producer and holds forth about him on a television talk show but when she brings ratboy to a press conference , he bolts for freedom - - enough is enough . the garbage dump was better . from that point onward , nikki begins to change her mind about her treatment of the misbegotten creature and he develops an ambivalent feeling for her .
terry semel wanted sondra locke to star in ratboy . according to mcgilligan , locke wasn’t at ease when she tried to explain in interviews how she got the project approved . she claimed that the eastwood connection wouldn’t necessarily convince wb . if anyone wants to read about clint eastwood’s behavior during this period , i’d advise both mcgilligan and locke’s books .
the screenplay was called ratboy : “it was a quirky and adult fairy tale , a social satire of sorts , about a young woman named nikki who is so obsessed with fame and fortune that she’s blinded to real values in life . she happens upon a creature , half boy , half rat , and decides he’ll be her ticket to the ‘big time’ . naturally , the little innocent ratboy is almost killed in the process , but , in spite of that , à la beauty and the beast , he falls in love with her , and through his pure love for her , nikki has an ‘awakening’ . ” ( the good , the bad , and the very ugly : a hollywood journey , p . 192 . )
sondra locke’s cry for independence came at a bad time for clint eastwood , as he was laying the ground for his prepared critical acclaim . it’s no wonder he tried to suppress ratboy . he did win that acclaim , but was it really worth it if he only could share it with blind fanatics of his “oeuvre” and people who never question the marketplace anyway ?
locke admitted that “the early screenings of ratboy were incredibly painful” . “if i had ever felt vulnerable as an actress , it was nothing compared to being responsible for the entire end result . it would be just as comfortable to parade around the theater in the nude as to sit through an audience’s reaction to a film i directed” . ( pages 197 and 198 . )
“i am always open to listening to the ideas of those around me . i felt that the script needed some work , and so i showed it to a few friends and co - workers . i knew that ratboy was a special , eccentric piece that gordon would really ‘get , ’ and so he was one of the people to whom i showed the script . ”
sondra locke ' s ratboy aims to be a fairy - tale style misunderstood monster movie in the same vein as , king kong or frankenstein . it ' s a strange story that boasts an even stranger cast of character actors including : sondra locke . robert townsend . larry hankin . sydney lassick . gerrit graham . louie anderson . john witherspoon . jon lovitz . bill maher . courtney gains . m . c . gainey . what it comes down to though is strangely enough just kind of exploitative . the drama is far and in between and the empathy and care for ratboy ( or eugene ) himself isn ' t handled as well as it should have been . we care for this creature , but why ? what is his destiny ? this is one strange flop .
the “statue of bigotry” as lou reed called it , still stands up as a present from france , and it’s really strange how europe looks at american films . it’s true , most still think eastwood is an icon . but , in time , his importance may diminish as ratboy ’s cult status may grow between his weeds . perhaps it’s an overstatement , but don’t forget it’s the old continent . eastwood isn’t that “new” . and films who deal with genuine feelings in a genuine fashion don’t always fall prey to fashion here . it’s no coincidence that , when john cassavetes died , gérard depardieu rented paris’ theatres and showed his films . ratboy seems to be an independent film inserted in a pop art frame ; too big for its origins and beyond those of a great studio , with a malicious producer at the helm .
if you didn ' t get a sudden urge to kill ratboy or any of the other characters in this movie , you were the lucky one who fell asleep ! the amount of cameo appearances by some well - known actors was astonishing . did they not receive the script before hand ? do they have no conscience ? i do believe the writers had good intentions to make this movie heart - warming . i ' m sure the director ( sondra locke ) had a pure dream to turn this story into a storybook fantasy about a loving and sensitive boy who just happened to be a rat ( ? ! ) . let me tell you , there are only two good things this movie has to offer ; robert townsend and ratboy ' s cool makeup job . well , actually the makeup job sucked as well ! i give it a resounding thumbs down ! !
the implications of a true rat boy are fascinating ; remember what francois truffaut made of his
wild child ,
and how intriguing the resurrected neanderthal was in
ice man
? the idea of being able to communicate with another species has been the subject of lots of movies , including
the day of the dolphin
and countless science - fiction films . but
ratboy
doesn ' t seem curious about that aspect of its story .
a beady - eyed guy with a pointy face and chisel - like buck teeth approaches you . he ' s dressed in a filthy suit , four sizes too big , and acts as twitchy as a rat in a rocking chair factory . he sports a slight tan , huge arms and legs , a beer belly , and big ole beard with two white stripes in it . ratboy ' s occupation is as a merchant and informant . . . one could say he is simply a trader with very varied wares .
“i recently appeared at a local college where i had been asked to view and speak about ratboy . it was painful to sit through the screening of the vhs copy – which is all that is available currently . it was drained of all original photographic beauty which i felt had so captured the look of hollywood and los angeles . to see the cropped and scanned images was deeply depressing . it’s an experience that i will not repeat . i long for wb , at least , to release the original film version on dvd , but that may not happen . ”
all the while ratboy is desperately trying to learn about the world around him , screeching out barely audible sentences while being manipulated , mocked , and harmed by everyone he meets . and i do mean everyone . there isn’t one character in this whole movie who could claim to have a soul . nikki and her brothers are too busy schmoozing at hollywood - style parties to even notice their discovery , a boozehound / pimp pretends to be his friend in order to jump on the bandwagon , and sneering extras try to shove alcohol down his throat while making fun of him at every turn .
a very young person that dedicates his life at playing online games . they are usually of ages between 4 and 12 , with an obvious lack of life experience , and annoying voices characterized for its very high pitch . most important , they are always spoiled assholes and always act aggressively towards other players , specially older ones . if they feel somehow threatened they will immediately insult you . nevertheless , if you respond in the same manner , they will run and / or cry and tell their parents ( just like a rat ) . the most known ratboy nests are minecraft and league of legends .
subscribe to classic trailers : urltoken subscribe to trailers : urltoken subscribe to coming soon : urltoken like us on facebook : urltoken follow us on twitter : urltoken ratboy ( 1986 ) official trailer - sondra locke , robert townsend movie hd it ' s so hard to be different . . . welcome to the fandango movieclips trailer vault channel . where trailers from the past , from recent to long ago , from a time before youtube , can be enjoyed by all . we search near and far for original movie trailer from all decades . feel free to send us your trailer requests and we will do our best to hunt it down .
rat - boy is a neglected child who decided to live in the sewers with the rats , the only ones who would accept him . he lives today to put fear in children as he raises his army of rat soldiers and mice minions ! he also creeps kids out by talking to people in the shower like that weird clown in the movie
it
, freeky shit man i pissed my pants , i hate clowns . anyway , be prepared for the uprise of ratboy ! ( and clowns ) lock and load your guns , get your tangelows , whatever you need for the end ! - p . s . clows really hate tangelows .
locke had agreed with some script changes that anderson had suggested to her . she thought they gave more character and eccentricity to the script . when eastwood refused to allow any of them , locke – to check her objectivity – secretly showed them to a few others involved in the production . it seemed they preferred the locke version . when christopher hewitt , ratboy’s voice coach in the film , read the changes he said : “i love these lines ; why aren’t we filming this instead ? ” “the golds , who were in charge of making the film trailers , agreed : ‘the first script is a little flat - footed , but this one’s great’ . ”
fritz manes was in a difficult position – he was a longstanding friend of clint’s , as well as clint’s producer , but he was also the producer of ratboy and was locke’s friend too , as much as he could . at the time , she couldn’t make the changes in the script deemed necessary because of eastwood’s constant interference . “but he insisted that i expand the whole cop chase part of the script , which i had wanted to de - emphasize as i thought it seemed like something from a different film . ” “there are these odd , flat - footed sections . that’s what i really resented about his input , and still resent” , writes locke in her autobiography ( p . 408 ) .
even now i’m sure you as an astute reader have begun to construct a plot around this film’s title . yes , good reader , this is indeed the tale of a boy who is part rodent and part human , whose interactions with society prove to be complicated and ultimately miserable . he is discovered and kidnapped by two seedy hoboes who plan to sell him to the media for mucho greenbacks , but is soon swiped by the shrewd nikki morrison and her bumbling brothers ( one of which is played by louie anderson…go figure ) . like the hoboes , nikki plots to use ratboy to attain fame and fortune , but rather than keep him in a cage she uses her feminine wiles to keep the creature on a romantic string .
a physically deformed and somewhat feral teenager whose face looks like the snout of a rodent lives in solitude and misery in a city dump . two rednecks come across his lair and kidnap him . they inform the papers about their find in case someone might want to see or interview the
ratboy
. only nikki , a bored fired window dresser pretending to be a reporter shows up . she wants to profit off of the child as well , so she calls the cops who arrest the rednecks and she takes the child with her to her flat . she and her two dummy brothers try to think of a way to profit on the boy , but he tends to get easily agitated and depressed and no one wants anything to do with him except possibly hurt him emotionally or even physically .
“i knew that gordon could do it because he was good at character voices . when he had acted in new york , he did some commercials where he had to portray animals and cartoon characters , etc . i asked gordon to give me an idea of how he thought ratboy would sound . i liked it so much better than all the voice over artists who had auditioned , that i recorded it without using his name . i knew that clint would not approve it if he knew it was gordon’s voice . i was surprised and baffled by clint’s whole childish and unreasonable objection to my wanting to use gordon’s talents in any way whatsoever . he had always liked gordon , and often asked for his thoughts and ideas in the past . for instance , gordon picked the circus music for bronco billy . again , it seemed arbitrary and all about control for the sake of control . ”
“i was thrilled when wb agreed to produce ratboy for me to direct . their only request was that i also act in the film . at first , this was a daunting idea . how could i undertake this on my first film directing . i reasoned that i didn’t really have a choice and so i agreed . it turned out to be a little less difficult than expected . as the story is told largely from my character’s point of view , i could use my performance to drive the story’s pace , etc . i have found that one of the techniques i use as a director is to go through the script and ‘get inside’ each character’s point of view – as if i am portraying each character . this way i can understand the story from every point of view . and so , in portraying nikki , the process of ‘acting’ the character was just one step further . ”
then , just as the movie couldn’t get any filthier or more disgusting , we get a happy ending in the last two minutes . swear to god . ratboy is believed to be dead , but nikki learns with ecstasy that no , her furry little friend has escaped the confines of humanity and is running to the country to be free . cue the opening chords of a poppy tune as our hero runs into the sunset . what ? huh ? did anyone really expect me to buy such a schmaltzy conclusion to a film without one note of optimism during its whole run time ? give me a break people ! at least show me some respect and stick to your through line . what’s most insulting about this finale is how it tried to sell me on the idea of how nikki had “changed , ” how she had gone from being a materialistic wench to someone who has learned a lesson about acceptance and love . blech .
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back in the day , songwriters carried around notebooks of ideas and lyrics or grabbed whatever random piece of paper they could find . now everyone does everything on their phones . not better or worse just different . i miss the romance of paper but love the convenience of digital ? urltoken
was in the same room as the gonz last night so crazy ! was too scared to say hi tho . such a legend
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several shady and shallow people try to profit , one after the other , from a physically deformed teenager whose face looks like a snout of a rodent and who lives hidden in a city garbage dump , alone and miserable .
trippy indie madeline ' s madeline is the movie that lakeith stanfield and boots riley from sorry to bother you want to see the most .
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. she also wanted to use different shooting locations and make changes in the script , but was not allowed to do any of these things due to clint eastwood ' s interference . warner brothers actually did not require that eastwood or his company be involved at all ; locke thought she should have a completely different producer and a different company attached , but eastwood wouldn ' t hear of it and wanted to control everything she did
to the degree that it was unreasonable
according to locke .
during the drive through hollywood , shots from the driver ' s side of the car show hollywood blvd . , but shots from the passenger ' s side show sunset blvd .
6 of 8 people found this review helpful . was this review helpful to you ? yes no | report this
with jurassic world : fallen kingdom now in cinemas , we take a look at how imdb users rated the films of the franchise . plus , browse exclusive lego® jurassic world playsets , presented by lego .
enjoy a night in with these popular movies available to stream now with prime video .
robert townsend - partners in crime - how the west was won . . . maybe
10 year old kids who frequently play m rated games ( call of duty , gta v ) , or minecraft , and they have an obnoxious behaviour ( they diss almost everybody who are playing with them ) because of their squeaky voice . ( this comes from spanish speaking countries )
1 . person , usually male characterised with ugly features , usually sqinty eyes , buck - teeth and large appendages . mostly avoids light , coming only out of his swamp at night to feed on scraps and discarded food . favours dark rooms and corners , frequently listens to depressing goth music or metal . rarely seen during daylight or showering . generally unclean . 2 . dirty person . 3 . insult , usually directed to males or masculine females .
uk slang . a young teenage criminal . lives in the airconditioning ducts of highrise blocks and shits on the carpets of the people he burgles
my tv & apos ; s gone and there & apos ; s shit on my carpet , i & apos ; ve had a rat boy in here .
a breed of vermin which is half rat half boy . they are extremly rare in the u . k , but can be spotted in tregaron in wales scurrying around for nutts . the welsh translation for rat boy is dafydd .
an ugly person that no one like but is alway there . has little friends .
rat - boy is half rat and half boy . . . . like a boss . . . .
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at their fun live shows , this upstate ny pop - punk duo is extremely energetic and super enthusiastic - lots of jumping and kicking by singer / guitarist alex luciano - she must have a spring for a spine . but more importantly , the songs are catchy . they also released a 7
in 2015 and a full - length coming out in 2017 , live video : urltoken
taking tradition full - on , the kentucky cellist touches genres as far afield as folk and r & b with his iconoclastic compositions .
it ' s been almost a year since he put on the prospect patch , and i think he ' s shown us a lot . he ' s smart , he ' s loyal , fearless , works like a dog , and unlike most of you gossip whores , he knows when to shut up .
and calls him a psycho . both prospects are told they must play russian roulette to prove their loyalty to the club , although the gun is not loaded .
at the end of season , he is amongst the ones to discover opie ' s attempted murder of clay . while helping jax move him into the garage , he is told by jax to keep to the story and keep his mouth shut if he ever wants to make patch .
2 unnamed lin triad members - shot in the chest . ( red rose )
not all omgs were founded by veterans . the outlaws mc was formed by enthusiasts in the mid thirties and from what i know most of them at the t . . . 2015 - 02 - 24t03 : 34 : 10z
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flo doesn ' t like how schwag lets all the bad elements of hollywood in the diner - flo doesn ' t trust people like swifty and wants something done about it .
ma brown says her restaurant , the brown crown , was closed unfairly . she wants us to go talk to officer lam of the hsp , and see if we can convince him to sign a statement saying her place is clean and fit to reopen .
this page was last edited on 2 october 2016 , at 01 : 17 .
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this laugh - out - loud , unlikely superhero comedy adventure is perfect for fans of tom gates , wimpy kid , captain underpants and jedi academy .
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basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him . riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you . …
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
roger ebert ' s speech on empathy for the
11th hour
series on april 9th , 1994 , being republished here in honor of his birthday june 18 .
roger ebert was born on this day in 1942 , and died a little over five years ago . i owe a good part of my success…
a look back at robert zemeckis ' half - animated classic , who framed roger rabbit , on its 30 - year anniversary .
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
the rat boy lives in a garbage dump somewhere in the hills above los angeles , in a hovel furnished like a cross between a tree house and a rec room . then he ' s flushed out by a couple of yahoos who think they can make millions by exhibiting him , and the movie turns into sort of a mini
king kong
( 1933 ) - complete with the scene where the creature breaks loose at the ceremony where it is being exhibited to the public .
i guess the rat boy himself is supposed to stir the same sorts of emotions , as
e . t . the extra - terrestrial
or
pinocchio
- miniature quasi - humans with high spirts and loneliness in their eyes . but the key ingredient in any fable like this is the story of how the creature originated . unless we can complete the sentence
he is like this because . . .
we are looking at a freak instead of a protagonist . and the rat boy remains unexplained throughout the entire movie .
i don ' t know about you , but i ' m very , very tired of chases - all except for the good ones , from steven spielberg or william friedkin . if a movie has introduced me to interesting characters , i want the story to explore and resolve their problems , and i don ' t feel fulfilled just because everybody chases each other , and the right guys win . chase scenes provide movies with terminations instead of endings .
an interview with terry gilliam , director of
the man who killed don quixote .