Trained in the fine arts, Peter Greenaway has infused his films with a painterly sumptuousness, executed with mathematical exaction. Many of the director’s most famous films are crafted with a pleasurably obsessive symmetry. Such pictorial equilibrium, however, often belies secret disorders, be they sexual fixations or societal ills. Our double bill of A Zed & Two Noughts (1985) and The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982) demonstrates Greenaway’s flair for pairing the rotten with the decadent, all while uncovering the elemental nature of humanity that lies beneath the baroque artifice. Highly self-referential, the two films not only explore the reflexivity inherent to the medium but also comment on how human relations and interactions—love and lust included—are a kind of performance as well. Bringing in influences from both science and art, these works are deliciously unclassifiable, and wickedly captivating.

Trained in the fine arts, Peter Greenaway has infused his films with a painterly sumptuousness, executed with mathematical exaction. Many of the director&#8217;s most famous films are crafted with a pleasurably obsessive symmetry. Such pictorial equilibrium, however, often belies secret disorders, be they sexual fixations or societal ills. Our double bill of A Zed &amp; Two Noughts (1985) and The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982) demonstrates Greenaway&#8217;s flair for pairing the rotten with the decadent, all while uncovering the elemental nature of humanity that lies beneath the baroque artifice. Highly self-referential, the two films not only explore the reflexivity inherent to the medium but also comment on how human relations and interactions&#8212;love and lust included&#8212;are a kind of performance as well. Bringing in influences from both science and art, these works are deliciously unclassifiable, and wickedly captivating.

Decadence and Decay: A Peter Greenaway Double Bill

DECADENCE AND DECAY: A PETER GREENAWAY DOUBLE BILL

Cloaked in a painterly sumptuousness, the mathematical symmetry of Peter Greenaway’s cinema belies a fascination with disorders, be they sexual fixations or societal ills. Influenced by science and the fine arts, these self-reflexive works are deliciously unclassifiable, and wickedly captivating.

Cloaked in a painterly sumptuousness, the mathematical symmetry of Peter Greenaway&#8217;s cinema belies a fascination with disorders, be they sexual fixations or societal ills. Influenced by science and the fine arts, these self-reflexive works are deliciously unclassifiable, and wickedly captivating.