The Extraordinary Miss Flower
Geraldine Flower never sought the limelight, yet in death, she has sparked something quietly revolutionary: a cinematic experiment built from song, memory and the words found in a box of old letters discovered by her daughter after her passing. Directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, The Extraordinary Miss Flower is not so much a biopic as it is a tribute – an elliptical reflection on identity, memory and the subtle power of written words to summon the past.
The film doesn’t make an effort to define Geraldine or impose a conventional narrative on her remarkable life. Instead, it drifts through a 90-minute flow of suggestion and silence, anchored by Emilíana Torrini’s haunting, ethereal soundtrack. Played by Caroline Catz, Geraldine remains an elusive presence – never fully realised, but rather glimpsed, contemplated and imagined against a backdrop of glowing blues and greens. A shadow and a muse, her presence is inextricably aligned with Forsyth and Pollard’s experimental sensibilities.
The Extraordinary Miss Flower progresses through the letters she received – messages with clear words and ambiguous, undecipherable meanings. Are they declarations of love, Cold War secrets or something else entirely? Forsyth and Pollard offer no answers or speculations. Instead, it focuses on the act of writing itself: the ritual of ink on paper, the unhurried pace of communication and the gradual emergence of thoughts. In this sense, The Extraordinary Miss Flower becomes a love letter – not just to its subject, but to the letter itself. Torrini’s music, composed from these texts, forms the film’s backbone. The arrangements, blending styles from soft acoustics to electronica, mirror the multifaceted nature of Geraldine’s life. Though her lyrics may feel overly literal as standalone pieces, within the context, they perfectly stitch together the fragmented narrative.
This is not a film for those in search of discovery, biographical clarity or a conventional narrative. Forsyth and Pollard pointedly reject these expectations, opting instead for something more impressionistic. Though it occasionally veers into excess, these choices feel purposeful in a story that unfolds like a séance, evoking her presence rather than her persona, leaving behind memories and moments that linger and resonate precisely because they remain, by design, incomplete.
Christina Yang
The Extraordinary Miss Flower is released nationwide on 9th May 2025.
Watch the trailer for The Extraordinary Miss Flower here:
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