Master Gardener - El maestro jardinero Directed by Paul Schrader
Master Gardener - El maestro jardinero
Directed by Paul Schrader
Starrings: Joel Edgerton, Sigourney Weaver, Quintessa Swindell, Eduardo Losan, Esai Morales, Rick Cosnett, Victoria Hill, Erika Ashley, Jared Bankens, Cade Burk, Jef Figallo, Christian Freeman, DJames Jones, Sean Richmond
Country: USA
Year 2022
Review authout: Roberto Matteucci
Click Here for Italian Version
“Money is the best manure. The better the money, the better the manure.”
The hortus conclusus is a green space cultivated with flowers, plants and trees, enclosed by walls. Thus protected, it acquires symbolic value. Merit derived from Song of Songs (4:12):
“Hortus conclusus soror mea, sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus.” (“You are an enclosed garden, my sister, my bride, an enclosed garden, a fountain sealed.”)
Rob Aben e Saskia de Wit in their book The Enclosed Garden – History and Development of the Hortus Conclusus wrote about gardens as oases of peace and quiet:
“Gardens are by definition havens of peace and quiet, order and pleasure in a chaotic and hostile world. Places where nature is at once excluded and brought into view in water and coolness, fertile ground and a fine prospect. At times these two worlds that of the 'unworldly' ideal and that of the real landscape - come together, as in the enclosed garden, the hortus conclusus.!” (1)
A perfect definition. The hortus conclusus is also used in painting, as an allegory of heaven, the Garden of Eden and the virginity of Mary.
“Etymologically, enclosed garden is a doubling up of the original meaning. The Old-English 'geard' means (woven) fence and thus enclosed space.? The garden shows the landscape its containing walls, and in the garden the natural horizon is shut out and replaced by an internal horizon: the upper edge of its surround. Inside it, a paradise is depicted.” (1)
Enclosed garden has a duplicity: clear isolation from the outside and an internal area transformed into a paradise. An island of serenity for its inhabitants is the spectacular simile used by director Paul Schrader in the film Master Gardener presented at the 79th Venice Film Festival.
Paul Schrader is a powerful author, able to build solitary individuality, always struggling with past and present. Master Gardner is the conclusion of a trilogy. The protagonist Narvel (Joel Edgerton) has ties to both the Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) preacher in First Reformed and William Tell (Oscar Isaac) torturer of prisoners in The Card Counter.
Paul Schrader explains the common structure:
“Well, it sort of evolved. When I was working on this one, a friend of mine referred to it as the final film in a trilogy. And I said, no, it’s not a trilogy. And then I thought about it some more and I thought, well, yeah, I guess it is. If they’re gonna call it a trilogy, you know, they’re probably right. Because there are certain elements that evolve and repeat, and a certain structural pattern that evolves and repeats. So, I’ve accepted that I’ve made a trilogy, even if I didn’t set out to.” (2)
Shot from a man's shoulders, he writes at a desk. The man is Narvel, director of a charming park, Gracewood Gardens, with a large manor house in which Norma, the owner, lives.
Narvel is both a pragmatic and a theoretical gardener. He speaks of it with knowledge, eulogizes the many types of gardens. He quotes Carl Nilsson Linnaeus and his revolutionary horticultural botany. Narvel manages subordinates, other good professionals, skilfully. Besides, he has an excellent relationship with Norma. The relationship has transcended the purely professional sphere.
Before, Narvel was not a horticultural expert. Like the Schrader's characters, Narvel has a terrible, ruthless and cruel past. When he takes off his shirt, he reveals it. His torso is completely tattooed with swastikas and other Nazi emblems. Narvel was an American neo-Nazi. He trained in a paramilitary camp until he became the group's killer. He assassinated numerous alleged political adversaries.
He modified his life. He accepted to collaborate with justice, so he was offered a new identity and a new business under Norma's protection. However, he never erased the tattoos.
Something changes when Norma asks Narvel to take care of her niece, Maya. He has to teach her the gardening job. She is a difficult girl with drug troubles.
Will those delusional tattoos mark him for eternity?
The film's themes are peculiar to the director.
Two different women. Norma and Maya are from the same family but are totally opposite, one elderly and one young, one polite and one rude. The age difference is not a problem for Narvel. First, he is in love with the mature Norma then, with the teenager and beautiful Maya:
“Here you have a man caught between two women, one old enough to be his mother, the other young enough to be his daughter ...” …
“I wanted the age gaps of the characters to add to the unease of the situation” … “Age, race, and gender made for a good narrative triad, where all the corners of the triangle meet in different ways as they explore the subject matter.” (3)
Punishment. Narvel was a murderer and sinner. He is trying to redeem himself, but redemption requires retributive and rehabilitation penance before a person can consider himself free.
“I am hitting the same kind of themes,” he said. “Here’s a man who feels needs to be punished, who’s waiting for that punishment to come, and then instead hopes that punishment will be some sort of redemption.” (4)
Narvel's salvation comes with love for a barely adolescent girl. She is unstable, dangerous and a misfit, but she is capable of sweet and tender gestures. Additionally, she also has terrible trouble. Added to those of Narvel, the result is an infinite amount of adversity. After the redemption, Narvel and Maya choose a hortus conclusus, a floral paradise to live with the beauty of flowers.
The Master Gardener describes American society's social aspects, including suprematism and crime, mixed with biblical metaphors and references to religion. On the other hand, it is in the Garden/Eden/Heaven where the serpent seduces Adam and Eve causing the original sin:
“It works both ways. Obviously, it’s one of the oldest metaphors in literature and religion — the primal metaphor of Christianity. You know, the snake is invited into the garden and Adam and Eve are thrown out. But, it’s a two-faced metaphor. Because on one hand, the old right winger, the old racist, can say, we are the gardeners — we root out the weeds and keep our nation pure. On the other hand, the reverse can be true. The gardeners can be those who say, we are the caretakers of life who encourage and celebrate life in all its beauty and diversity. And so you have opposing views able to use the same metaphor, and that was interesting to me.” (5)
It is a double-sided metaphor. The garden can be both a place of sin and paradise.
The metamorphosis of personalities:
“That’s why I decided to go totally upbeat at the end, with that song that I helped create. Just to give these people their freedom and their love. In First Reformed, he may be dead; in The Card Counter, he may be in jail. But now, here they are: free in the garden, in love, free from all the constraints of society to live as “man and wife,” as the Bible would say.” (5)
Narvel and Maya have freed themselves, so they do not have to pay any more debts to society. Now, they can live in paradise peacefully, as Paul Schrader says, "man and wife" and as in Song of Songs "... my sister, my bride".
Narvel Roth has a restless soul, described by tense bloody brutal flashbacks. Nowadays, he is different, although still marked by miserable tattoos. He is calm, kind, meticulous, scrupulous, enthusiastic and tireless. His past is not forgotten. He remains scarred but he knows he cannot repeat his horrible mistakes. He is a metamorphosis, he is stronger and more mature. His personality changes again when he meets Maya. Falling in love with her makes him proud, courageous, and, to defend her, he is forced to face enemies from her past.
Norma is a rich lady, Narvel's lover, despite the age gap. Strong-willed, experienced, intelligent, sophisticated female. She is an authentic mistress. She has just one weakness, her relationship with Narvel. When she introduces Maya to him, does she know that Maya will break up her affair? She will keep her charm but no longer have the strength to impose herself.
Maya's character is the simplest. For the director, she is the snake in the Garden of Eden. She dismantles Norma and Narvel's certainties focused on the park.
The three characters are decent, accurate for a vigorous structure. Initially, Narvel's presentation is complicated but evident when he undresses. Two women arrive and consolidate the plot.
The continuation is understandable and the conflicts are varied. The characters are against each other, with their pasts, and their enemies. Master Gardner is different from the other two films in the trilogy. Its finale is optimistic.
The expectations are high, but the tension has softened. Time passes, but nothing occurs. Even if something did happen, it would hide in the psychology of the main character.
However, the best is the flowers' magnificence. The film begins with the usual opening credits, which occupy half the screen. In the other part, images of seductive flowers scroll down as they are about to bloom.
It is the exaltation of the green, of the park, as in the prelude. The light is dim, low, highlighting Narvel's writing. The rest is black, with a colourful flower garden.
Narvel's existence is continuously synchronized with the park; the dialogue with the new detective in charge of his security alternates with the destruction of his garden. Narvel and his park are in danger of elimination.
Editing helps to develop tension, existence mutation, a fantastic and lush garden. The autodiegetic narrator's voice weighs down the story but the bright sunny colours create heaven.
Rob Aben, Saskia de Wit, The Enclosed Garden – History and Development of the Hortus Conclusus, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, Second revised edition 2001 https://www.google.it/books/edition/The_Enclosed_Garden/5ihAR9ASr4gC?hl=it&gbpv=1&dq=hortus+conclusus&printsec=frontcover
Pressbook, US
https://www.indiewire.com/2022/09/paul-schrader-interview-master-gardener-1234757809/