There are many things that draw us to flowers, from their bright colors to pleasant smells that have the power to evoke special memories and take us back to a specific time in our lives. Flowers embody humans’ relationship to nature and are something we cherish and like looking after. But the most important reason why we love flowers is that they can elicit such positive emotions and ultimately make us happy. Sometimes, even thinking of how to send someone flowers can make us happy, as we imagine their reactions to our gesture. Receiving flowers is just as wonderful, as it can help establish a powerful connection with someone we care about.
Film-wise, flowers also help make scenes more memorable, both for their symbolic value and for how pretty they can look if arranged properly. So many movies have scenes featuring flowers, but we made a list of 5 of the most memorable sequences, according to us! Find it below in alphabetical order!
1. Alice in Wonderland
First on our list is Alice in Wonderland! Lewis Carroll’s beloved 1865 novel, about a young girl who follows a White Rabbit down a hole and enters a magical, dreamlike world that will change her forever, has been adapted into film several times, and each version contains many scenes with flowers in them. One of the most popular sequences, which Walt Disney’s 1951 version did particularly well, features the evil Red Queen’s playing cards painting her white roses red on her command, while singing a song about it. There’s an interesting symbolism here, as the Queen – the film’s antagonist – seems to be obsessed with the color red, which symbolizes not only love and passion, but also danger. Since the roses are not red to begin with but white – a color that stands for innocence – and need to be painted red, this symbolizes the Queen’s artificiality, which manages to make even nature look unnatural.
You should also check out Tim Burton’s 2010 live action Alice in Wonderland film, which has incredible worldbuilding. In a stunning scene, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) has just arrived in Wonderland and finds herself shrunk in size and face to face with a series of magical creatures, including some memorable talking flowers that give the movie the quirky style Burton is known for.
2. The Great Gatsby
Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel features not only a character named Daisy (Carey Mulligan), but also a memorable scene involving flowers. The film, set in the Jazz Age, revolves around its titular character, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), a charismatic millionaire with a habit of throwing glamorous, glitzy parties. The movie begins when writer and wall street trader Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), Gatsby’s neighbour, finds himself drawn to the latter’s lifestyle and starts finding out about his mysterious past.
The most memorable flower scene in The Great Gatsby has to be the one in which our protagonist fills an entire room with orchids – a symbol of love and beauty – to impress the woman he loves, Daisy. The two had been apart for a long time, and the flowers are meant to celebrate their reunion. Production designer Catherine Martin and set decorator Beverley Dunn won an Academy Award for The Great Gatsby’s Production Design back in 2014, and it was well deserved.
3. The Last Samurai
This 2003 epic from writer-director Edward Zwick and co-writers John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz, set in 19th Century Japan, sees Tom Cruise in the leading role. The Top Gun star plays a retired, alcoholic US army captain named Nathan Algren, who is hired by a Japanese emperor to train his army in modern warfare. Disillusioned by the war, Algren agrees, only to soon find himself captured by a Samurai named Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), whose son, Nobutada (Shin Koyamada), Algren killed in a battle. As Algren spends more and more time in the Samurai community, waiting for the snow to melt and let him go back to the emperor, he learns their customs, and he also finds a sense of belonging that gives him a new purpose and eventually changes him forever.
There are many memorable scenes in The Last Samurai, and one of them takes place in Katsumoto’s cherry blossom garden. There, the samurai leader teaches Algren about bushidō, or “the way of the warrior”. At the beginning of the scene, he looks at a cherry blossoms and explains to his friend that “the perfect blossom is a rare thing; you can spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.” Here, these beautiful flowers become a metaphor for mortality, and a way for Katsumoto to explain that a true warrior finds “life in every breath” – meaning that every moment should have purpose. Cherry blossoms are the perfect flowers to accompany this scene, as they symbolize beauty and life with their vibrant colors but are also a reminder that life is short, since they only bloom for a very limited time.
4. Midsommar
Ari Aster’s 2019 horror classic gives the titular Midsommar a new meaning, revolving around a couple – Florence Pugh’s Dani and Jack Reynor’s Christian – who visits rural Northern Europe to take part in a Swedish mid-summer festival but finds themselves hostages of a pagan cult that forces to take part in a bizarre competition. Midsommar is filled with flowers, which are often used to give the movie its eerie atmosphere, thanks to the contrast between the beauty of nature and the ominous atmosphere around our protagonist, also enhanced by effective cinematography and sound design. The turning point in the film is when Dani is crowned May Queen, and she becomes literally surrounded by flowers of all kinds. Dani is surrounded by beauty but the threat of death looms around her at all times, and the colorful petals around her help show this thematical contrast on a visual level too.
5. The Wizard of Oz
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The last film on our list is also the oldest one, and one that’s responsible for the birth of modern musicals. The Wizard of Oz (1939) centers on a young woman named Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland). One day, a tornado hits Kansas and sweeps her and her dog Toto away, to the magical land of Oz. There, she learns that the only one who might be able to send her back home is its ruler, the Wizard. And so, with three friends she makes on her way, she’s – to quote one of the film’s most famous songs – “off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!”. Except that the Wizard’s not exactly who she thought he’d be, but that’s another story.
There are many flower scenes in The Wizard of Oz, but the most memorable one has to be that of Dorothy falling asleep in a field of red poppies. Though we won’t give the scene away, as it’s a key moment that you need to discover on your own, poppies are very appropriate for it, as they symbolize remembrance during difficult times: since Dorothy is quickly losing touch of reality and finds herself slipping further away from home, poppies are important in helping her remember what she left behind. On top of this, they also represent peace, something that Dorothy desperately needs when she falls asleep in the field.
The five movies listed above all contains scenes featuring flowers that are important both visually and thematically, and also add symbolism to them that makes each of these films memorable. If you’re looking for even more inspiration, check out American Beauty, The Secret Garden, Vertigo, and My Fair Lady. Happy watching!
