The Vengeance of Lilacs
Mar. 13th, 2025 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smokingboot posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
the_scent_of_lilacsSo I thought I would add something about lilac folklore and the way it weaves through the movie.
My mother is Spanish, of traditional family. When I wanted to buy a lilac tree for this house, she was very straightforward; 'they are beautiful but they bring bad luck. Find another tree.' My brother has a lilac in his front garden but it has been there longer than he has, so he let it be. It blooms gorgeously every two years with a drowsy-sweet perfume brushing visitors as they come in through the gate. My mother says nothing presumably because if bringing a lilac to your garden is bad, aggravating it is worse. Besides, it has some lovely meanings too; renewal of first love is one. Can't really be surprised at Orlok's accusation of Ellen as enchantress. Like Maythorn and Herb Robert, the lilac has close affinities to Fairie or even death. In many areas of Europe heavy sprigs of lilac would be sometimes be placed in coffins, ostensibly for pretty reasons, but also with the practical purpose of covering corpse smell.
Smell brings a powerful connection to memory, and Orlok is determined that Ellen will remember their earlier time together. In Ellen's dreams, the stench of decay is associated with her wedding day and brings her joy beyond disgust. For Orlok, the smell of lilac quickens him further to find her. Poor Thomas demanding his locket back! He was never going to get it, but he'd have put up a better fight if he'd held out his hand and insisted before he signed those papers.
A little diversion here; in many parts of Europe, lilac blooms around Easter, so it has a connection to the Resurrection. Eggers' little joke I suspect! The lilac also has associations with pursuit and destruction that leads to something exquisite. Many people know the story of how Pan got his pipes; he pursued Syrinx, who ran in fear of him to the river, begging the nymphs for help. They turned her into a lilac*. Pan got there to find the beauty disappeared. Disconsolate, he cut the lilac (Syrinx means 'tube', and the name of the lilac genus Syringa Vulgaris is taken from it) and turned it into pipes which he kept with him forever. Pressing the eponymous pipes to his lips he created the sweetest music across Earth and Olympus, challenged only by Apollo whose brutal treatment of critics may have skewed their judgement between him and the goat foot god.
Ellen was more fortunate than Syrinx in that she began the pursuit. Orlok is disgusting in a way Pan could never be but both hunters embody/embrace raw appetite. The difference here is that Ellen and Orlok are much more deliberate, conscious in their approach to each other. Ellen needs no help to reject/accept Orlok, she isn't changing herself for him. Her disguise has been prior to all this, trying to fit into the world of Anna, Thomas, Clara and Louise, a world of kindly families where her father would not be angry at her. This attempt to change her shape has been destroying her with far more slow cruelty than Orlok ever could.
In embracing herself and her death, she will make him embrace his. They'll be together on far more equal terms than Syrinx and Pan, and god knows what anyone will make of their music.
Maybe that's the vengeance of lilacs.
*Some versions replace this with a river reed.
My mother is Spanish, of traditional family. When I wanted to buy a lilac tree for this house, she was very straightforward; 'they are beautiful but they bring bad luck. Find another tree.' My brother has a lilac in his front garden but it has been there longer than he has, so he let it be. It blooms gorgeously every two years with a drowsy-sweet perfume brushing visitors as they come in through the gate. My mother says nothing presumably because if bringing a lilac to your garden is bad, aggravating it is worse. Besides, it has some lovely meanings too; renewal of first love is one. Can't really be surprised at Orlok's accusation of Ellen as enchantress. Like Maythorn and Herb Robert, the lilac has close affinities to Fairie or even death. In many areas of Europe heavy sprigs of lilac would be sometimes be placed in coffins, ostensibly for pretty reasons, but also with the practical purpose of covering corpse smell.
Smell brings a powerful connection to memory, and Orlok is determined that Ellen will remember their earlier time together. In Ellen's dreams, the stench of decay is associated with her wedding day and brings her joy beyond disgust. For Orlok, the smell of lilac quickens him further to find her. Poor Thomas demanding his locket back! He was never going to get it, but he'd have put up a better fight if he'd held out his hand and insisted before he signed those papers.
A little diversion here; in many parts of Europe, lilac blooms around Easter, so it has a connection to the Resurrection. Eggers' little joke I suspect! The lilac also has associations with pursuit and destruction that leads to something exquisite. Many people know the story of how Pan got his pipes; he pursued Syrinx, who ran in fear of him to the river, begging the nymphs for help. They turned her into a lilac*. Pan got there to find the beauty disappeared. Disconsolate, he cut the lilac (Syrinx means 'tube', and the name of the lilac genus Syringa Vulgaris is taken from it) and turned it into pipes which he kept with him forever. Pressing the eponymous pipes to his lips he created the sweetest music across Earth and Olympus, challenged only by Apollo whose brutal treatment of critics may have skewed their judgement between him and the goat foot god.
Ellen was more fortunate than Syrinx in that she began the pursuit. Orlok is disgusting in a way Pan could never be but both hunters embody/embrace raw appetite. The difference here is that Ellen and Orlok are much more deliberate, conscious in their approach to each other. Ellen needs no help to reject/accept Orlok, she isn't changing herself for him. Her disguise has been prior to all this, trying to fit into the world of Anna, Thomas, Clara and Louise, a world of kindly families where her father would not be angry at her. This attempt to change her shape has been destroying her with far more slow cruelty than Orlok ever could.
In embracing herself and her death, she will make him embrace his. They'll be together on far more equal terms than Syrinx and Pan, and god knows what anyone will make of their music.
Maybe that's the vengeance of lilacs.
*Some versions replace this with a river reed.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-13 03:11 pm (UTC)Thanks!
Date: 2025-03-14 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-13 07:03 pm (UTC)In embracing herself and her death, she will make him embrace his.
THIS!!! I've been thinking a lot about our Leni. Self-actualization through self-destruction / immolation. (You know, it would be fun to do separate character analyses. One per post...) I don't think she does, actually, love Thomas. I do think she realizes that Thomas is her heart, her salvation from damnation, but she rejects it for her love of Death. She's powerful and yet makes herself appear fragile and unempowered to those around her. Orlok recognizes her! And that draws parallels to Coppola's Dracula and Mina. "I've crossed oceans of time to find you..."
no subject
Date: 2025-03-14 07:27 am (UTC)Self-actualization through self-destruction / immolation. Yes!
I think Leni loves Thomas, but it is a human love, a kind of love so powerful it can leave Orlok in the darkness for years, but not forever. While human love is protective and compassionate it also means confinement of the most intimate kind, tightening her corset laces to keep her 'straight', tying her to the bed. Hers is an energy that the human world can only pity and constrain. To exist in it, she must always feel discomfort and unease because she is 'not for human kind.'
no subject
Date: 2025-03-16 03:25 am (UTC)And of course, I LOVE that line from Coppola's Dracula: "I've crossed oceans of time to find you..." Swoon-worthy, for sure. Supposedly, that line was the one that convinced Gary Oldman, after reading the script, to agree to play Dracula.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-13 09:43 pm (UTC)I find the link to Greek mythology and Pan of great interest. British fantasy writer Arthur Machen in his famous story "The Great God Pan" (1894), depicted Pan as a Nosferatu-like being of immense power and mystery. An evil, but strangely alluring, supernatural force that corrupts everyone it touches, and even drives them to madness.
Brilliant of Eggers to include lilacs as a symbol for Ellen. He's definitely a very visual artist, with the wonderful use he makes of colors and textures in costuming, symbols, and sets. Even his lighting choices for scenes tell a story.
no subject
Date: 2025-03-14 07:14 am (UTC)From what I gather, the association with misfortune is precisely because of association with death and/or Faerie. If these aren't a worry(!) there's no other problem, lilac's meant to be good for, say, love and money! But wherever lilac grows, Otherworld is not far away...
I agree completely re Eggers as a visual story teller.