A Zed and Two Naughts was pretty interesting, very bizarre.
the use of color(and costumes) in the cook, the theif, his wife and her lover was really well done
I love his vision of what a film must be, specially satisfied with A Zed and Two Naughts and Draughtsman’s Contract for all the things both of them accomplish: drama, suspense, comedy, and specially his photography, wich at moments resembles lots of universally famous paintings, since Greenaway is also a painter and has a great influence at filming.
Im looking forward for Criterion to finally release some of his films, or maybe an Eclipse boxset later on.
it’s all about cinematography and tracking shots.
and a penetrating study of possiblities, philosophical concerns, violence, sex, etc. He blends mediums to create a wild sensory experience.
Greenaway is an obsessive collector who has a fixation with the number 92, genitals, bathtubs, and French culture.
That said, DROWNING BY NUMBERS is my favorite, but doesn’t merit watching more than once. I can watch THE PILLOW BOOK endlessly. THE COOK, THE THIEF… is also great.
I have only seen The Cook The Thief His Wife Her Lover. It was difficult to enjoy, but I did like how it felt like a stage play. The shots of the kitchen are amazing…feels like an entirely different world.
Beautiful films, but sometimes deadly dull … even with all that gingerbread.
To be fair, I do watch PROSPERO’S BOOKS from time to time.
PROSPERO’S BOOKS is a beautiful and unique Shakespeare adaptation unlike any other, and I think it has one of the most stunning opening sequences ever.
I truly hated COOK/THIEF, I thought it was the worst kind of smug trash. It divides the world into the Good (educated, mild-mannered people who read in restaurants) and Evil (crude, stupid, vulgarians). It’s a feel-good movie for pseudo-intellectuals with a martyr complex (as well as fantasies of vengeance). Remember that scene where Michael Gambon is forcing paper down that poor guy’s throat? That sums up the relationship between Greenaway and the audience (or at least me).
I understand why people would dislike Greenaway, as my interest in his films has nothing to do with what some others would call their artistic pretensions. Watching his films I simply felt amazed at the visuals, the cinematography, and the extreme black humor. His films in the 80s had such a distinctive look and feel and all of the elements just sort of clicked with me on a personal level. Drowning by Numbers I felt was really fantastic. I understand its built on a gimmick, but the way that gimmick is used with such interesting visuals, dialogue, and Michael Nyman’s score felt completely right to me. Zed and Two Noughts, The Cook the Thief…, and Baby of Macon are also extremely interesting films. It’s difficult for me to describe why I like his films because I don’t really understand any of the allusions or winks that are probably thrown in for those that know something of art history. The only other director I can think of that seems to have been influenced by Greenaway a lot is Wes Anderson, and I don’t think an Anderson film has half the amount of visual flair or wit of a Greenaway film (and I have nothing against Wes Anderson).
I know we are all duplicating threads here, but I started a thread here on Peter Greenaway about 19 days ago called: WHAT MAKES A PETER GREENAWAY FIILM SO UNIQUE? You might find this of interest. I am a big fan, too, with certain reservations – nothing to do with his unique visual style (hence my thread).
Great visuals, imagination, and fun…. I love his films: The cook the thief the wife and the lover ….
Prospero’s Book was a choreography….
Has anybody seen Nightwatching? If so, what are your thoughts?
I haven’t been able to forget The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover. It was ugly, very disturbing but now when I recall it, I really like it in retrospect. But my friend still thinks it was the craziest film I ever gave him. When I watched his short Dear Telephone, initially I thought it was directed by David Lynch. I don’t know if the two influenced each other in any way? But Greenaway had once said he wished he’d made Lynch’s Blue Velvet himself. Can anyone please tell me about any similarities/differences between the two?
Generally very interesting up to and including Prospero, but pretty much everything since has been lacklustre. 8.5 Women really was terrible. Cook/Thief, ZOO & Drowning by Numbers are all great.
COOK/THIEF is a pretty silly film, when it comes right down to it. I never believed the big Revenge scene at the end for a minute. There’s a wonderful Chuck Jones short called CHOW HOUND that manages to do in 10 minutes what Greenaway can’t do in two hours, basically explore themes of food and power and revenge. Jones spares me the sight of Alan Howard dry-humping Helen Mirren, also.
Never seen a Greenaway film that I thought was worth the effort, frankly. DRAUGHTSMAN’S CONTRACT, PILLOW BOOK, some interesting ideas in search of a director.
I’m afraid at this point for Greenaway’s film legacy. Over the past decade or so, he’s had his hand quite a lot in site-specific installations, lecturing, gallery showings…even VJ’ing using his own material. But it feels as if the rejection by American distributors of The Baby of Macon, and then later of a number of his better films since (Pillow Book and 8 1/2 Women – both of which I saw in the theater on their release – are only minor PG) has left Greenaway resigned to retaining only a small audience for his films. The Tulse Luper Suitcases films were buried—there’s no other word for that kind of non-distribution. These works are floating around online in torrents like samizdat; and that’s a crime.
I’ve seen Nightwatching and enjoyed it quite a bit despite my lack of knowledge about Rembrandt or art in general. The attention to detail, beautiful visuals and lighting, and witty dialogue seems to have survived intact from all of his films from the 80s that I enjoyed so much. Added to the general Greenaway trademarks is something that is unusual in his films, a general sympathy and humanistic portrayal of Rembrandt and his wife. The film itself seems very much reminiscent of Baby of Macon, with the focus on stage-like sets and frequent breaking of the fourth wall. Often the characters speak directly to the camera in monologues that may seem pretentious to some, but worked for me and helped me to care about the characters. That being said, the overall plot of the film felt convoluted and a bit dull at times.
I wish Criterion would get hold of titles like ’Prospero’s Books’ or ‘Baby Of Macon’, which I think are undoubtedly deserving of a Criterion release; it perplexes me sometimes that certain Michael Bay films are included in the catalog, whilst true art is shunned or delayed inexplicably.
I wish Criterion would get hold of titles like ’Prospero’s Books’ or ‘Baby Of Macon’, which I think are undoubtedly deserving of a Criterion release; it perplexes me sometimes that certain Michael Bay films are included in the catalog, whilst true art is shunned or delayed inexplicably.
The Tulse Luper Suitcases part 1 is running on Sundance this week.
A better DVD version of “Drowning By Numbers” would be most welcome.
My Greenaway Canon:
1. Drowning by Numbers
2. The Pillow Book
3. The Cook, the thief, his wife, her lover
4. The Belly of an Architect
5. The Falls
I have watched a few others of his non-installation films, but these are the five I enjoy.
“a cultural omnivore who eats with his mouth open” Pauline Kael called him.
Painting (esp Vermeer), multi-media, intellect over emotion, nudity, decay, symmetry, games, numbers, lush colours, loaded screen; a very European, Anglo-Welsh, Dutch-based knowledge gatherer, ploughing his own furrow, pushing back the boundaries of different art forms with little concern for public taste or popularity, maybe arrogant (“his head has gone to his head” it’s been said of him).
I’ve had very mixed reactions to his films, did like The Draughtsman’s Contract, The Cook the Thief his Wife and her Lover, and Prospero’s Books. As a great fan of Sei Shonagon’s Pillow Book i was very disappointed with the film. His love of lists and intellectualising overwhelms her poetic love of nature. Several others fell flat and it’s often difficult to assess how deep his intellectual games really go. He’s set himself above the common herd.
brain has gone to his head, i meant. Oh and he also likes oddballs, deformities, things that disgust or shock an audience. He’s a great admirer of Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad, and i imagine he must also have been very attracted by Resnais’ Toute la Mémoire du Monde, with its elegant camera moves set in the French national library, with its labyrinth of floors, its careful numbering, organisation and incredible collection. The fluid horizontal camerawork in The Cook, Thief.. owes a lot to Resnais i think, and of course Greenaway used cinematographer Sacha Vierny. Prospero was always an ideal subject for him- and Shakespeare’s Prospero himself was most likely based on the eccentric John Dee, Anglo-Welsh Elizabethan court astronomer, mathematician, alchemist with the largest collection of books in Britain at the time
Beautifully illustrated compendiums detailing the human quest for knowledge in lieu of self-awareness.
Huge fan of Greenaway as I’ve pontificated on numerous other threads. The minimal fluidity of the camerawork in his films and the experimental juxtaposition of images is always interesting and oddly appropriate to the subjects he tends to film. He’s much more concerned with style than with an emotional grounding, but this (oddly enough) doesn’t bother me because his analytical nature ends up ruminating upon philosophy as well, so it balances out in my mind.
The Draughtsman’s Contract and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover are his most accessible (though no less essential). I rather enjoyed 8 1/2 Women as well even though it’s pretty flawed … reminded me of the morbid fascination adherent in A Zed and Two Noughts, not to mention Drowning by Numbers. All of his films contain a disproportionate amount of obsession of one thing or another and this interests me a great deal. He’s very transparent in that way and therefore he’s also very self-indulgent. Self-indulgent artists make the best (and worst) filmmakers because they can either succeed greatly or fail miserably (unabashedly) and I admire that risk a great deal.
The opening sequence of Nightwatching really took my breath away … I was sitting there watching it, turned to my companion at the time with a wide grin and spoke solemnly, “Aww yeah, now this is Greenaway.” Unfortunately, the rest of the film only occasionally revived that feeling, but it’s not a bad film either. I’ll have to watch it again (seen it twice, but it’s been awhile now) to really absorb it, but there’s some interesting things happening. It’s like the distant, less humourous cousin of Prospero’s Books and The Draughtsman’s Contract.
Dusty B
Penny For a thought