Fleurs on Film: The Color Purple

You have to imagine Simon Le Bon singing my title- very '80's. Instead of "Girls on Film", Simon and I have replaced long leggedy creatures with flower petals. I have noticed that as I watch movies, I pay almost as much attention (sometimes more) to the flower arrangements and gardens as I do to what is going on in the movie. I thought I would share some of my favorites, as well as some new finds (as I find them) with you. Who knows, maybe you pay just as much attention to them as I do, or maybe the next time you watch a movie, a really big arrangement will catch your eye and for a fleeting filmy flickering moment, you will think of me. Maybe. First up, is a film that really is all about flowers, even if you (or the filmmakers) don't know it; the heart-achingly haunting and beautiful The Color Purple.

Just try for a single moment to imagine this movie without the glorious fields of cosmos. You can't do it, can you? I have had many a daydream peppered with the cosmos that grow and flow abundantly in this movie.

The opening scene of the movie is of young Celie and Nettie playing childhood games in a beautiful sea of cosmos. No matter what happens to the female characters in the movie, there is always that refuge of flowers to collect, comfort and console them.

Flowers pop up in almost every single scene in this movie. Even in a dirty disgusting mess, underneath is a flower.

Who hasn't wanted to play tag with sunflowers after watching this movie?

Cosmos are everywhere! (A word to the wise, especially to brides, cosmos although beautiful makes for a terrible bouquet flower- I give it a few hours tops and thats if it is in a vase.)

There is the scene towards the end, as Celie and Shug are walking through the fields that Celie asks "You think God is Vain?" and Shug answers- "No, no, no just wantin' to share a good thing- I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it." "You sayin' it just wanna be loved like it says in the Bible?" "Yeah Celie, everything just want to be loved." What an amazing thought. Which made me think of all the flowers throughout the entire film, no matter how bleak life became for Celie she always (and I really do mean in almost every single scene) had a vase of flowers- flowers drying- or pretty potted plants around her. She, like the flowers, just wants to be loved.

I defy anyone to watch this last scene and not cry. You can't do it. CAN'T. Their childhood flowers are there to welcome Nettie back home.

Like a day hasn't passed.


Never seen The Color Purple? Please do. It breaks your heart and mends it again into something stronger and better. You can count the flowers you see, and the amount of Kleenex that you use.