Anemome, the Film
Hawthorne Blossoms With Anemomes, Mid-Century
A curious title for character study film that goes all in Irish on you, yet once you allow the backdrop of nature to seep inside your psyche the metaphor of this delicate flower’s color is waiting for you in the yielding sky, the torrential storms and in violet hues painted on the walls of the son’s room. I admit once I saw the color painted on the son’s room, I was as they say, all in.
It's been some time since we’ve seen a film like this released, perhaps because the lead character decided to act again albeit with a script, he co-wrote with is son. It’s moody, deep and can take you to the edge bringing you back again because the elements of our natural world serve as one of the storytellers; being the backdrop by signaling and mirroring the wild ride of human consciousness. Daniel Day Lewis and his son have created a film that will silence your soul for a moment and have you gasping at the cinematic adventure, and naturally Daniel’s acting. The story line is pure. It’s about as real as it can get for the Irish and dare, I say the Brits. Daniel’s son appears to be as mighty a painter as his father is an actor, I do not know but it feels as if he took the lead with capturing and allowing nature to be the storyteller part, perhaps with a whimsy of AI.
Seeing the restless landscapes, I kept hearing a friend of mine say, “the sky was there”. An odd way to express a feeling, yet when we witness the rawness and rhythms of the nature world that Anemone presents, for some we are left speechless, gasping at the ominous might of what is above and beyond us, which perhaps is the point.
I’ve grown Anemones, they are among my most favorite flower, their poppy-like petals are quite fragile and can easily be blown away by the wind, Anemones are often referred to as windflower for that very reason. They are from the buttercup family and their planted bulbs in warmer climes are perennial, returning year after year. Wild Anemones mostly grow in woodlands, are generally white, and as we are told when we see them growing in the woods of the film was the favorite flower I believe of a long-lost father. Cultivated Anemones come in a variety of shades, like the purple-bluish-violet third-eye chakra color that initially drew me to them many years ago, as in the color of the son’s room in the film. There is also a striking red-colored Anemone, which is captured in the sweater Ray (DDL) wears near the end of the film, again curious for we nature and flower lovers as we attempt to speculate all the metaphors and symbology associated with an enflamed emotional story between two brothers and a reckoning of sorts, by an otherworldly kind of flower that whispers to you when it graces your presence . . . curious.
Stay true,
MGH