The Extraordinary Miss Flower review – secret life exposed through treasure trove of love letters
You'd be forgiven for not having heard of Geraldine Flower, the subject of A new film from artists Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, the pair behind the 2014 Nick Cave documentary 20,000 Days on Earth. (Cave makes an appearance here reading a letter or two.) Flower was not famous in her lifetime and in fact, after watching the film we're none the wiser about how she spent her later years. But when she died in 2019, a suitcase packed with hundreds of love letters written to her by smitten men in the 60s and 70s was found in her London flat.
The letters inspired a 2024 album by Icelandic singer-songwriter Emilíana Torrini (called Miss Flower) and also this intriguing, gorgeous and creative documentary – a film somewhere between an installation with songs and an extended music promo. It features Torrini and her band performing songs from the album, some dramatised scenes (actor Caroline Catz plays Flower), plus a bit of modern dance. This description makes it sound like art school navel gazing, but while it can be mildly frustrating, The Extraordinary Miss Flower is a real pleasure: luxuriant like a good glass of red wine. Partly that's down to the songs, vivacious pop-electronica numbers sung with seductive intimacy by Torrini, who is pretty extraordinary herself.
What we do find out about Flower is that she had a conventional upbringing in Australia, then swanned off to London where she worked as a secretary at the Telegraph, picking up bits of journalism. An adventurer by nature, she travelled widely – and men were obsessed, reduced to slushy puddles by the dozen. Plenty of them wrote letters too, read here by Cave and others, including actor Richard Ayoade. Flower herself remains elusive – which is the point, perhaps, since the perspective here is mostly lovers' projections written on a delirious high, reconstructed from the letters. Some lines are romantic, others hilariously awful: 'I am in withdrawal from you like a Prague junkie.' Poor guy.
The Extraordinary Miss Flower is in UK and Irish cinemas from 9 May
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