The Illustrious Peter Greenaway

[Johann]

Greenaway has lofty goals and ambitions with his cinema.

The trouble is unless you read up on the guy and see the films repeatedly you'll never know it. Another problem is that there aren't that many film fans out there willing to follow him on his painterly mission.

I love the man.
I love his mind, his vision, his detail. Yes, it's minuitae. It's finite. It's complex. But mama-mia, if you can't stand to see another hobbit or terminator, you've found THE MAN.

Every true film fan eventually gets bored with the body of crap Hollywood produces and seeks out a Godard or a Brakhage. Discovering Greenaway was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. The dude is endlessly fascinating to me.

Here's a motivator for you, Justified (you too, Ken!): if you see and post reviews of 3 Greenaway features (love 'em or hate 'em) on this thread, I'll buy you the Greenaway DVD of your choice. No shit- 3 reviews and you've got yourself a brand-new DVD, compliments of me.

Up for that?

[JustaFied]

Hey, you've got yourself a deal, Johann. I've already seen two of them (well, actually 1 1/2), so I'm halfway there.

I'm on your side here. I'm all for filmmakers taking chances and breaking the mold. I like to pretend that most of that Hollywood crap doesn't even exist; right now, looking at the movies showing at the local multiplex, I couldn't tell you the first thing about half of them.

Now, the hardest problem is going to be finding more Greenaway films to rent. I think I got the only two in stock at the local Blockbuster. Maybe need to going searching on the Net.

Like I've said several times on this thread, I was very impressed with "The Pillow Book". It's a beautiful film, absolutely stunning in its mood and its images. At some point here, I'll try to translate that into an actual review of the film.

What are your favorite Greenaway films? Is "The Pillow Book" near the top of your list? Which ones should I be going for next?

[Johann]

Good stuff, man.

My favorite Greenaway is The Baby of Macon. I'm betting you won't find it and if you do, it'll be a copy, not an original VHS or DVD. (Casablanca in Calgary and Videomatica in Vancouver only have poor quality copies)
It's absolutely riveting to me. I posted a bit on it on the imdb under shierfilm. If you notice, not too many people understand it.

My next fave is Drowning By Numbers. The Nyman soundtrack is incredible. I listen to the soundtrack a lot and the film is very Felliniesque. Third would be The Pillow Book. Stunningly gorgeous.

Point-form recommendations:

The Draughtsman's Contract- think Barry Lyndon with even more concentrated images- I shit you not, this film will test your patience like no other!

A Zed and Two Noughts- You might wanna rent this one. It's easy to understand: 2 twin brothers study the effects of entropy- ending with themselves as test subjects! Greenaway used the Brothers Quay as inspiration. It's still all Greenaway, though...

The Belly of an Architect- Dennehy as a frustrated architect who draws inspiration from the great architect Boulee. Greenaway shoots Rome so beautifully you'll wanna move there.

Death in the Seine- Greenaway shows bodies being pulled from the famous river (men, women, children) who were affected by the plague and civil upheaval- he shows (and tells) of how they died, how they were treated upon removal from the river. It's only an hour-long show, and it's one of his best. (Lots of freaky nudity as well- you've been warned).

The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover- His most watchable, accessible film. Michael Gambon is the Thief, a restaurant owner who treats his wife (Helen Mirren) and staff like utter garbage. His wife spies "Her Lover" eating at the restaurant and they have bizarre rendezvous until The Thief catches wind of the affair. You'll never forget the ending. Also stars Tim Roth.

Prospero's Books is John Gielgud's last feature film role and he bows out better than Olivier did. This film is "The Tempest" severely reworked- Gielgud voices ALL of the parts and is the pure embodiment of Shakespeare here. He said he found working with Greenaway to be a priviledge, and that he was never more proud of a role. Try to remember when watching it that it takes place on a ship AND and island- the shift is very subtle and you might miss it completely. The "BOOKS" are life for Prospero. Miranda is his muse and this film uses juxtaposition of video media to dazzling effect. Hopefully you can keep up.

[Johann]

Here it is: the official website for Greenaway's epic trilogy.

Feast on the multi-media!!!

www.tulselupernetwork.com

[Johann]

Just for information, Greenaway has cast some oddballs in his new trilogy:

Kathy Bates
William Hurt
Molly Ringwald
Don Johnson (WTF...)
Sting

[Johann]

Here's the trailer for The Moab Story, the first installment of The Tulse Luper Suitcases trilogy. (Release date unknown, but it is on DVD through www.exploitedcinema.com)

http://www.soundpalette.nl/v3/theweb...ls/trailer.htm

[Johann]

Man, this new book I picked up is an excellent read.

It's by Alexander Walker, and he talks about the British film scene in great length, putting top British directors in a 16-year perspective.

Here's his views on Greenaway:

"Peter Greenaway had already followed the unexpected success of his feature debut The Draughtsman's Contract with A Zed and Two Noughts; in The Belly of an Architect he had drawn even closer to the mental geography and arcane hideouts of Continental Europe- this distancing himself with deliberateness from Anglo-Saxon tolerance and understanding.

That he was travelling alone obviously did not worry him in the slightest: he probably found himself more at home, in his own sensibility, when not having to deal with his countrymen's aesthetic blindness and parochial deafness.

Set in Rome, the new film recorded with precise prognosis the steps to calamity and then extinction of an eminent architect, whose belly is the first image in the film, mimicing the rotundity of St. Peter's, a fleshy landmark amid the religious fantasies of Roman Catholicism- and, in Greenaway's diagnosis, just as infected. With what, though it was hard to say: perhaps the view of life as a self-fufilling conspiracy that claims body & soul eventually.


here Walker gets pure:

In The Draughtsman's Contract, his hero painted himself into a corner where his murderers were waiting, alarmed by the clues to their guilt that his sketches disclosed; in The Belly of an Architect, his hero is also illuminated by a foredoomed mortality as his days of grace expire and he loses his health (to a malignant tumor), his wife (to a philandering colleague), his self-respect (to the city's dolce vita), his work (to a beaurocratic cabal) and his life (to all the aforementioned inflictions).

Once the autopsy was over, The Belly of an Archtect was seen- by some- to have the macabre beauty of a tomb with a view. Greenaway's imagery deployed architecture in a Kubrickian fashion, relishing symmetry that shed beauty but also engendered apprehension; while his photographer, Sacha Vierny, deployed his own art in such sympathy with the masters' eye that it was hard not to think of him and Greenaway in terms of the twin couple in A Zed and Two Noughts.

Mortality was close to his heart (as well as belly): he had once made a 4-minute film entirely about 37 people who had fallen out of upper-story windows. His films had become more and more directly allusive, teeming with details and metaphors taken from painters that he combined with this Jacobean fascination with death, with whole heaps of it, dispatched with a swagger and chronicled with an actuary's pendantry.

Greenaway operates in relatively relaxed financial parameters, and can afford himself the luxury of critical hostility.
(At least for the generation to whom he still appears subversive).

[Johann]

A Zed and Two Noughts


I saw this a couple days ago at the Bytowne. Sheer brilliance.

The first thing that struck me was the absolutely perfect compositions and framings of each scene/shot.
Sacha Vierny wasn't no ace cinematographer. He was some kind of otherworldly genius. I love his work. And coupled with Greenaway, this was some kind of collaboration.

One thing I noticed that I hadn't when at home was the Stourley Kracklite obit. On a big screen your eyes can wander a little better, and I noticed the reference (pre-dated?) to The Belly of an Architect.

Neon. Snails. Time-lapse photography on various animals and creatures and apples in stages of decay/entropy. A pulse-pounding Michael Nyman score. Is a zebra a white animal with black stripes or a black animal with white stripes?
An amputated leg.
Two identical twin brothers (Oliver and Oswald Deuce- the O's of "ZOO") screw the one-legged-soon-to-be-no-legged Alba Bewick, who gets pregnant, and she feels that they are "both" the father.
Still with me?
Bwah ha ha.

Um, there's nudity, there's a lot of clinical claptrap, several strange scenes that just seem to have been filmed in some other dimension...All in all, a glorious experience on the big screen.
(For me anyway).
There was a young couple sitting behind me and I could feel the incomprehension emanating from their souls. And when the girl laughed at the full frontal nudity I was wondering how they came to buy their ticket. It was a fairly empty theatre and I think I know why. Greenaway is a bit much for some people.

Hey, at least the man admits he's an eccentric British filmmaker..

[oscar jubis]

I love how the film manages to bring together some very incongruent story elements. But it's the image-making that makes it a must-see. Like most of Greenway's stuff, this loses some appeal when viewed at home. Was the print in good condition? Tell us more about the programming at the Bytowne. Thanks for the evocative comments.

[Johann]

The Bytowne is the only real art house theatre in Ottawa and every ticket is only six bucks.

Today and tomorrow has There Will Be Blood, which is now on DVD and I still haven't seen.

They play some classics (next week: Godard's Contempt (Les Mepris) and they recently showed Antonioni's The Passenger) and they play older recent "important" films like Black Book or The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

They jam the schedule with a lot of great films every month.
It's a shame I can't get there more often.
But I got a lot of cinema to see yet this year.

The Greenaway was a brand-new print and it was indeed a sumptuous feast for the senses. I think the dialog annoyed a lot of peeps in the audience. They seemed to be mildly shocked into watching it till the end, because I didn't see any walkouts.
I missed The Draughtsmans Contract, which played last week. Couldn't be helped. I know, I'm sad too.
:)

[oscar jubis]

Nice programming. I found the website and read about the history of the theater. And only 6 bucks with a $C10 yearly membership. By the way, I never imagined a few years ago that I would have to consider cost of transport when deciding to go to the movies. I no longer go to one of the 3 stand-alone art cinemas in the area, the one farthest from me, the Cinema Paradiso just south of downtown Fort Lauderdale. It costs me about $9 to drive there and back. And the ticket is $8. On weekdays I need to add $3 for parking. In a way it's a blessing that the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival sucks.

[Johann]

Yeah the travelling can be a bitch.
Luckily I only live 20 minutes from the Bytowne (on foot).

It can be expensive to go to the movies, and I understand why people "wait for the DVD", but some films just have to be seen on the big screen. Have to, chachi.


I just watched Excalibur and John Milius' Conan the Barbarian again. Awesome flicks. Milius's movie has some brutal stuff going on, with a strong Kurosawa flavor..

Excalibur is amazing. An amazing creation from John Boorman. Love it.
Someone on the imdb said it's better than Ridley Scott's best ventures into fantasy and I agree. I think Sir Ridley studied what Boorman achieved here to make his films "Gladiator" and "Kingdom of Heaven". No doubt, after seeing the masks and costumes again in the tale of that Sword of Power & King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Beautiful magical work from a great filmmaker.

I re-read Kent Jones review/article of There Will Be Blood (Triumph of the Will / Anderson hits the Mother Lode) and I can't wait to see it. Like he said, Oil and Religion is a lip-smacking thing to so many people right now...

[oscar jubis]

I don't mind the traveling. I just have to think twice before spending $20 or more to watch a film. I never had to think twice about going to a faraway theater to watch a film. With gas approaching $4 a gallon, it's a different story.

I must have seen Excalibur when it came out in 1981, but I am not sure. I was in college at the time. I was already a fan of Boorman because of Deliverance and Zardoz. At Cannes, it won an award that no longer exists: "Best artistic contribution". Alex Thomson, the cinematographer, was nominated by the Academy. Like There Will Be Blood, a film that must be seen in a theater hence my reluctance to rent the dvd. I'll wait for a Boorman retro or the time when I own a bigger set. Good of you to bring it up.

[Johann]

I have been looking for Peter Greenaway's TULSE LUPER SUITCASES trilogy for years.
I have located the first part on a Pal Region 2 (import) DVD and I'm in the process of having it transferred to a DVD I can play at home.
The other two parts are not available at all it seems. Australia released a set of all three films in 2008, and it is almost impossible to find.

It annoys me that Greenaway's films are not easier to acquire. The Baby of Macon has finally made it to Blu-Ray, and I will be buying it.
It's my favorite Greenaway film, and to see it on Blu-Ray should be Divine.
The man is a genius Artist. He's second to Kubrick to me in terms of distinct cinematic style.