In his apartment in São Paulo, in between making coffee and gay hook-ups, poet Marcelo Diorio’s intimate world is revealed. Marcelo talks about his HIV status, his homophobic father, his fantasies of having his father watch his lovemaking, his lovers’ passion, his Catholic grandmother, and his incestuous brother. But Marcelo’s words only seem to take centre stage. In fact his physical movements divulge more: they are performative reservoirs of memory and Marcelo’s flat becomes his life’s stage. Upping the ante on Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason with an audacious level of collaborative craft and control, The Blue Flower of Novalis is an honest, entertaining, and brilliant film with a closing image that will remain forever seared in the viewer’s mind.