“The Man Who Loved Flowers”, by Matheus Campos. A.K.A “the Brazilian version of The Man Who Loved Flowers”
You can watch Matheus Campo’s film adaptation directly on our website or directly on YouTube.
“The Man Who Loved Flowers” and “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away” are two of the most adapted short stories of The Dollar Baby Deal. And that happened because these two stories had something in commun: they were “easy” to adapt. They are both good stories and they both look like a Stephen King story, although there aren’t ghosts, goblins and monsters (things that most people wait to see at a Stephen King movie). But each one of them shows a different side of King’s work that goes way further than the usual monsters that his work is most known for.
We have drama in “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away” and for me, dramas are King’s best kind of stories because he shows us how good he is as a writer without the need to have a monster or a killer in the story. That is one of the reasons I chose to adapt “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away” into a Dollar Baby. The other reasons? Wel, I am a big fan, I prefer this kind of stories of his aaaand I would never have money to make a monster in a low budget short movie. So, ” All That You Love Will Be Carried Away”.
I believe these were the same reasons that made other filmmakers choose to adapt this story, the money thing in particular. For this story and for “The Man Who Loved Flowers”.
“The Man Who Loved Flowers” shows another side of King’s work, a third side, where we have death, killings, but the monsters are real. The killers in those stories are common people, someone that reminds you of a person you know, a neighbor perhaps. And this makes me more afraid than the monsters. This story in particular shows that in a beautiful and clever way: we have a young guy who looks like a normal guy, an in love kid who buys flowers for his girlfriend. And then BAM!!!!! It is also King at his best, simple and efficient. And it is a simple story to adapt, nice and easy, just like “All That You Love Will Be Carried Away”.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that every filmmaker that chose those stories were lazy and did not want to try and be creative with low budget in other stories, it is quite the opposite actually.
“All That You Love Will Be Carried Away” might look like a simple drama and easy to adapt, but Alfie Zimmerman has so many layers. And good filmmakers dug those layers and made good Dollar Babies. The same way there are also bad Dollar Babies based upon this short story too. The same happens with “The Man Who Loved Flowers”, it also has good and bad versions of it.
Matheus Campos shooted his “The Man Who Loved Flowers” in 2019, while the Dollar Baby Deal was still working and this story was one of many King used to allow young filmmakers to adapt just paying one Dollar. But Campos did not send the dollar, it is an unofficial Dollar Baby. In a way it is sad, because without a contract Campos is even more restricted with his movie than the Dollar Baby filmmakers. Lets face it: King’s lawyers may take this link out of YouTube in a second. And this scenario makes me wonder even harder why a talented filmmaker would make a movie that he can not make money from it. And then I remember how it is to be a young filmmaker.
Now I am 40 years old and I have been making movies since I was 24. And my first short movie was also based upon a story from a writer that I love. I did that knowing that I would never make money with that movie. I did it because I love movies and wanted to start making some of my own. I did it to have fun too.
The first movies for young filmmakers should be like exercises, especially if they have low budgets. Because the first movies are safe places where it is acceptable to make mistakes. It is acceptable to try things and by doing that young filmmakers will eventually find their own style, their own voice. And to get to that they probably will make mistakes, something you don’t wanna do when there are large amounts of money involved. This is the first step to maybe becoming a successful filmmaker. But even if you never became a successful filmmaker (like me, I never did) at least you will have some fun, I promise you that.
I bet Matheus Campos had some fun while he was shooting his version of “The Man Who Love Flowers”. I say this because if there is one thing that I learned in this industry is that if you have a bad mood on set, it will affect the movie, it will print in the movie. And the opposite is the same. And I see love when I watch this Brazilian short movie, not only because there is a young fellow carrying flowers on screen, but because I see a simple and light short movie. There is no fancy cinematography or dialogues (there ain’t dialogues) or a very well written screenplay. It is just this guy crossing the city to deliver some flowers to a girl. Simple as that. And this made this short movie so much better then other versions of this same short story.
You might say that I am saying this just because it is a Brazilian short movie, but believe me when I say that you are wrong. Until recently, when Bernd discovered this short movie from 2019, I used to believe that there were only five official Dollar Babies made here in Brazil, mine included. I personally think two of them are below par.
And now we found out about this “new” one and another one, an official one, but let me say that this short movie from Matheus Campos is the only Brazilian short movie based upon a short story by Stephen where I can truly say I see Brazil on the screen. That is because he shooted a lot of scenes outdoors and I do recognize those streets, I do recognize that train and that kind of newspaper stand. I have walked those streets, I have ridden on that train, I bought comic books at newspaper stands like that one, I know that Brazil. And that makes me smile. It probably won’t be the Brazil you guys wait to see in a movie, with beaches and Carnival, but this is a movie that shows another side of my country. You will see a metropolitan town that looks like NY or Tóquio. And some of you might be surprised because there ain’t monkeys on the streets, neither naked indians walking around. And that is why I think this is an important Brazilian short movie since King fans might wanna watch it.
As an adaptation of the short story he was successful too. Without any lines, no dialogues, the main actor, Gabriel Begnini, holds our attention from the first frame. He is not an excepcional actor, but he is a good one. Gabriel has a presence that makes us really look at him. And once we look, what do we see? A kind fellow, a guy in love. It is easy to like the character, he is young and is holding some flowers. At least once in our lives we all saw a fellow like that walking the streets and thought “this dude is in love”. And then we smile at him. I smiled when I saw the kid for the first time the same way I smiled when I recognized this city that I love. Gabriel, Matheus, obrigado por isso.
Without a single line, without dialogues Matheus Campos gave us a great version of “The Man Who Loved Flowers”, one of the best I have ever watched (thirteen so far). And that just having fun, almost a fan movie.
Do you know what Campos answered to Bernd when he asked if it was an official Dollar Baby? He said ” It’s not a Dollar Baby, but It was made with great respect!!!”. And that is why this man has my respect. Respeito, meu irmão, respeito.
The Dollar Baby’s grade? We from SKSM give 3 fingers of the dead guy’s hand. And the dead guy would blink his eyes to you, Matheus, if he still had his eyelids.
That is it for today. Hope you guys like the movie, please send us your feedback, I bet the director will love it.
Leonardo Granado.
