Flowers of the Night (1987)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Flowers of the night |
| Original title | Flowers in the Attic |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1987 |
| length | 83 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jeffrey Bloom |
| script |
VC Andrews (based on the novel) Jeffrey Bloom |
| production |
Sy Levin Tom Fries |
| music | Christopher Young |
| camera | Gil Hubbs |
| occupation | |
| |
Flowers of the Night is an American psychological thriller from 1987. The plot is based on the novel of the same name ( Flowers in the Attic ) by VC Andrews from 1979.
action
Because she married her own uncle, Corinne was cast out and disinherited by her rich father. However, the marriage between Corinne and Christopher Dollanganger is harmonious. The greater the shock for Corinne and the four children (the two teenagers Cathy and Chris and the two four-year-old twins Cory and Carrie) when the police had to report the accidental death of their husband or father one evening. Now completely penniless, after fifteen years of marriage there is only one way out for Corinne to go back to her parents, who live in a huge mansion with a spacious park.
With this move, Corinne wants to win back the favor and trust of her seriously ill father so that he can use her as sole heir again. Since he is not allowed to know anything about the existence of the children in order to implement this plan, they are locked in a room. Under the strict regime of grandmother Olivia, the children live in captivity, shielded from the outside world, only the spacious attic remains for them as a place of retreat and play. For now, the children are ready and willing to support their mother's plan. But during the following weeks and months the mother's visits become less and less frequent. First doubts about the mother's true intentions alternate with the fear that her mother will be held captive like her. The two older children try to escape twice at night, but both of them fail.
The children find it increasingly difficult to come to terms with their imprisonment. In addition to being isolated, the young people also have to suffer from hunger, as food is only given irregularly. Their trust in their mother is waning more and more, and the relationship with her cools down on their rare visits. All the more so when Cory, one of the two younger twins, becomes seriously ill. The grandmother and mother are reluctant to be “persuaded” to drive him to the hospital. The next day, the mother informs the other children that her brother has died of pneumonia. The youthful corpse is placed in a grave on the country estate; three other graves have already been dug next to it.
Cathy and Chris have now discovered a way to leave their hiding place to secretly explore the house. The young people are collecting more and more evidence that confirms that their mother has lied to them and betrayed them: Why is she hiding the upcoming wedding with her new husband Bart Winslow? Why did she keep silent about her father's death? The teenagers get the answer to these questions when they read the will. Thereafter, the mother's inheritance can also be withdrawn retrospectively if it turns out that her first marriage did result in children. After a mouse kept in a cage by the children dies by nibbling on a biscuit, the children realize that their brother was deliberately poisoned with arsenic and that the same fate is destined for them.
On the mother's wedding day, Chris overwhelms the grandmother when she brings the (poisoned) food into the room. During the wedding ceremony, the three children enter the church and confront the mother. She apathetically denies the existence of her own children. In a fight between mother and daughter, the mother falls over a parapet and dies.
Reviews
- The internet platform cinema.de describes the bizarre psychological thriller as strange and somewhat flat, but exciting.
Deviations from the novel
There are some discrepancies between the novel by VC Andrews and the film version (list not exhaustive). Above all, the taboo areas of incest and sadomasochism have been softened.
- In the novel, the story takes place in the 50s, the film plot takes place towards the end of the 80s.
- In the novel, imprisonment lasts around three and a half years, in the film it is shortened to 1 year. Accordingly, the two teenagers in the film are much older at the beginning of the incarceration than in the novel (12 and 14 years old).
- In the film story, the grandmother smashes a ballerina statue, which Cathy had received as a gift from her father. This scene is not described in the novel.
- In the novel, the emerging sexual maturity of teenagers is comprehensively described (keyword incest), this topic is not taken up in the film.
- In the film, the mother receives 17 lashes as punishment after her arrival (one lash for every year of marriage with Christopher). In the novel, the punishment was more severe with 33 lashes.
- In the film store, the two older children sneaked into the grandfather's room and were then briefly detained by him. This film scene is not described in the novel.
- In the film story, the children leave the property “penniless”, in the novel they steal money and valuables.
- In the novel, the mother married her new husband, Bart Winslow, while their children were in captivity, while in the film, the wedding day coincides with the day of liberation.
- In contrast to the novel, the mother dies at the end of the film after a fall.
- In the film plot, the mansion "Foxworth Hall" is guarded by sheepdogs, while in the novel no pets were tolerated on the property.
- In the film store, the children receive powdered biscuits; in the novel, they are Berliners.
Trivia
- The film was first released in the United States on November 20, 1987. The German cinema premiere took place on July 14, 1988.
- Kristy Swanson won the Young Artist Award in 1989 in the category "Best Young Actress in a Horror or Mystery Motion Picture" against six other nominees
- The exterior shots were shot on the grounds of Castle Hill , Massachusetts . The interiors were shot at the Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills .
- The film grossed just over $ 15 million in the US.
- Novelist Virginia C. Andrews plays a short extras in the film as a window cleaner (after about 42:15 minutes).
Web links
- Night flowers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
swell
- ↑ film review on cinema.de
- ↑ Film description with film review on ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. die-besten-horrorfilme.de
- ↑ Premiere dates on Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Awards on Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Filming locations on Internet Movie Database
- ↑ Gross profit on Internet Movie Database
