The MET Gala meets the Movies

by Cláudio Alves

MIDSOMMAR (2018) Ari AsterThis Spring, the Costume Institute at the MET is putting on an exhibition titled "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." It's all about garments that, through the passage of time, have degraded or become too fragile to wear and exhibit by traditional means. They are slumbering, but through technological wizardry and museum magic, one hopes to breathe new life into them. From pepper ghosts to glass coffins, replicas, and immersive soundscapes, the MET will deliver visions of the fashioned ephemeral cataloged through an appeal to nature. The exhibit has three elemental parts– earth, air, and water –underlining the connective tissue between the pieces and the natural world, where decay is an essential part of existence. In some ways, it's a look at notions of impermanence through fashion.

Fittingly, this year's MET Gala has a dress code defined as "The Garden of Time," a novel by J.G. Ballard that considers similar themes. However, because stylists and celebrities are literal to a fault, this has resulted in florals and flowers as far as the eye can see – the red carpet turned into a Midsommar cosplay convention. If you're dissatisfied with the offer, why not scratch that sartorial itch through cinema? Here are some possibilities…

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Blueprints: "American Beauty"

Last month we dove into one of the most iconic shower scenes in cinema for April Showers. For May Flowers, Jorge takes a look into one of the most famous thematic uses of a flower in film.

American Beauty was at one point supposed to be titled American Rose. This is neither a coincidence nor an appropriate alternative. The film, a satire about American suburbia and the layers of darkness that society hides underneath their pretty but rotting exteriors, heavily uses the recurring image of rose throughout. Not just in the now iconic nude sequence with Mena Suvari. 

Roses appear through the script in many key parts, usually in places where a character is putting up a façade for the world, or when they are completely submitting to their darkest impulses. Or when those two collide. Let’s take a look at where the flowers ominously represent both the attachment and the repulsion against society’s “pretty” standards...

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The Darling Buds of May: Aunt May

May's end snuck up on us so quickly. We meant to do far more of these "May" characters. But here is abstew with one final tribute to a darling bud named May...

Full Name: May Parker aka "Aunt May" The complete name of the Aunt May from the comics is May Reilly Parker-Jameson (she later marries the father of The Daily Bugle's J. Jonah Jameson)

Film She Starred In: Although Aunt May has appeared in all of the recent Spider-Man big screen ventures of the past 12 years (5 and counting), let's focus on the first, Sam Raimi's 2002 film, simply named, Spider-Man.

Played By: Acclaimed British actress Rosemary Harris brings this Aunt May to life. Adding some gravitas to the film, Harris studied at the famed Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and is a nine-time Tony Award nominee (winning in 1966 for The Lion in Winter) and an Academy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress in 1994's Tom & Viv. [More...]

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The Darling Buds of May: May Welland

[Editor's Note: In the interest of keeping things fresh, we aren't doing the traditional "May Flowers" series this year but this spin-off miniseries, spearheaded by abstew though I'll also be chiming in, featuring characters named that way. - Nathaniel.]

Full Name: May Welland Archer 

Film She Starred In: The Age of Innocence (1993) Martin Scorsese's adaption of Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel (1920). 

Played By: Winona Ryder (real last name: Horowitz). Already a well-regarded and popular actress having previously worked with directors Tim Burton and Francis Ford Coppola, the then 21-year-old was Scorsese's first choice for the role.

Time and Location: The film takes place in the preferred setting of Scorsese, New York City. Although the drawing rooms and Opera houses of a 1870s Manhattan were a bit of a departure. May and her family also spend their summers in St. Augustine and when she and Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) marry, they Honeymoon in London and Paris (where she has her clothes made and a sculpture modeled of her hands).

First Appearance in the Film: May first appears at the 4 minute mark when professional snoop/gossip Larry Lefferts (Richard E. Grant) spies her controversial cousin Countess Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer) entering the Welland's Opera box. More...

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The Darling Buds of May: All the Way Mae

[Editor's Note: In the interest of keeping things fresh, we aren't doing the traditional "May Flowers" series this year but this spin-off, spearheaded by abstew (who you just heard on the podcast) though I'll also be chiming in, featuring characters named that way. - Nathaniel.]

Full Name: Mae Mordabito aka "All the Way Mae". It's not just a name, it's an attitude.

Film She Starred In: A League of Their Own (1992) The hit film from director Penny Marshall (Laverne!) about the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Co-stars include Geena Davis as Dottie, Tom Hanks (There's no crying in baseball!) as the drunken manager Tommy Dugan, a pre-Tank Girl Lori Petty as Dottie's sister Kit, Rosie O'Donnell as Mae's best friend Doris, and David Strathairn.

[more stats after the jump...]

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