Peter Greenaway
Brandon J. Freels
friends that they are nearly Surrealist. I know he did a film called
Prospero's Books, and another recent film called The Pillow Book. Are his
films worth checking out? Are they really surrealist films? Anyone know?
elag
I've seen most of his films, and I think that they are well worth
seeing. Whether or not they are "surreal" is a point of contention upon
which I will not comment directly. Here is a brief summary of "A Zed
and Two Naughts" (1985):
A car accident caused by a swan leaves ex-siamese twin brothers
widowers. They take up with the driver who has had one leg amputated
and is considering having off with the other...
Sound "surreal" enough for you?
The reason that I think Greenaway's film are so worthwhile is mainly
the formal visual aspect. His sense of color, composition and texture
place his films in an imaginative realm rarely traversed by the
commercial cinema. In fact, his films have more in common with painting
than with the average film. This is not surprising since he began as a
painter.
He tends towards a high concept treatment of plot which relates more to
the abstraction of the plastic arts than the more typically literary
leanings of standard cinema. Admittedly, his dialogue and direction of
actors can seem a bit stilted and artificial at times, but in my
opinion, this is like complaining about the "incorrect" perspective of
the cubists. His point of view is unique and imaginative and generally,
internally consistent. Most of the criticism I've heard of his films is
by folks too heavily bound by the aesthetic of the commercial cinema to
allow a film to blur the boundaries between different artistic media.
This brings us to "The Pillow Book", his latest film, which is based
(very loosely) on the medieval journal of a medieval Japanese courtesan.
In this film Greenaway creates a rich collage of image, text and word
which is so densely layered and detailed that it begs to be seen again.
In his typically imaginative fashion, Greenaway sublimates the actors
and plot both literally and figuratively to a loving and obsessive
analysis of text... specifically, Japanese calligraphy. He emphasizes
the elements of the visual/design over plot/character/action in a way
that I find refreshing. It is a breath of fresh air in a Film-world
stifled by the stink of "oscar-winning-performances",
"feel-good-movies", and "blockbuster-box-office-appeal".
In short, Greenaway, brings the Art back to the "Art of Cinema".
enjoy!
Robert Scott Martin
Brandon J. Freels <fre...@teleport.com> wrote:
>I have never seen the movies of Peter Greenaway, but I have heard through
>friends that they are nearly Surrealist. I know he did a film called
>Prospero's Books, and another recent film called The Pillow Book. Are his
>films worth checking out? Are they really surrealist films? Anyone know?
Greenaway is not an avowed surrealist. His academic affinities are, if
anything, rooted in the precise, mathematical grotesques of the symbolists
and the older violence lurking in the old masters. He is a classicist and
a lover of maps without countries, whereas the surrealists I think you are
seeking are lovers of countries without maps.
I think you may enjoy the works of Raoul Ruiz (along with, of course,
Senor Bunuel) on their oeuvertly "surrealist" merits.
Brandon J. Freels
Robert Scott Martin
Even if I can't, BJF, here it is:
Raul (my mistake yesterday, I was caught up in the dipthong that never
ends) Ruiz is something of the unofficial national filmmaker of Chile,
although he now works in France. He's best known in North America for the
recent "Shattered Image," which is a Hollywood thriller complicated by
doppelganger dreams, misplaced identity and murder.
His earlier films, of which there are dozens, are more difficult to come
by, but the early "Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting" and "On Top of the
Whale" are both available on video in the USA. The latter is concerned
with glossollalia and the ethnography of the imaginary savage -- or savage
imagination -- while the former is a colder, more loplopian attempt to
smash all the picture frames.
More detailed notes on the Whale can be viewed at
http://www.filmcircuit.com/htmlpgs/topwhale.html
The Stolen Painting contains a short film which is representative of the
artist's earlier, more violent period. All films are fetishistically
concerned with the raiment of time.
A general overview is available (en espanol) at
http://www.imago.cl/mirada/ruiz.htm, under the delightful heading "Sonado
de peliculas."
Andrea Chen
forgeries, the net pages you and your cohorts created look plausible.
It wouldn't even suprise me if you shot snitches of film or perhaps a
whole movie.
Brandon: Mr. Scott Robert Martin (who must twist all things even his
name which is really Martin Robert Scott) is a well known follower of
Borges who in combination with others is creating reviews of nonexistent
pieces of art. From there they often create the art itself with even
more detailed bits of biograghy such as letters.
These people recognized the web as an opportunity to do on a massive
scale what others did with a few fraudulent footnotes. They create web
pages and referances to their fantasies, already some of these have
picked up by lax scholars and entered into authoriative referances.
The goal is to destroy or rewrite the history of art. Can you imagine
what would happen if you were to compose a complete referance on the
history of surrealism and a signifuicant number of the people and works
of art you referred to didn't exist?
Be wary the trap Mr. Scott is weaving, if you aren't careful he wil
have you publicly praising a nonexistent movie. Such a thing would be
at odds with your vision of surrealism which demands that you be the
viewer not the object of art. It could open the way to radical
deconstruction of your ontology.
el...@concentric.net
will "fall for" this rubbish.
Here's the cure:
http://newsfeed.hollywood.com/latimes/calendar/961129/961129-art30.html
WARNING: Bollocks below.
v
v
v
v
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Share what you know. Learn what you don't.
yOu
> I have never seen the movies of Peter Greenaway, but I have heard through
> friends that they are nearly Surrealist. I know he did a film called
> Prospero's Books, and another recent film called The Pillow Book. Are his
> films worth checking out? Are they really surrealist films? Anyone know?
go, NOW, to the video store and rent anything and everything by the
cinematic genius known as peter greenaway...
5. prospero's books :
this is the most visually stunning, over-stimulating, film i have ever
had the priviledge to bear witness to... the sort of film that every
film-maker and/or enthusiast should have in their collection without
question... the film consists of so much stimuli that it is nearing a
headache pitch... natural born killers x 5 = prospero's books...
brilliantly directed by peter greenaway... adapted from william
shakespeare's 'the tempest'... and doused by john gielgud's voice (in
the class of william s. burroughs and ken nordine)
11. drowning by numbers :
a great new fascination of mine... an amazingly beautiful film by the
wonderful film/artist peter greenaway... murderous women with an ironic
twist = greenaway film... peter delivers, once again, with lovely
depictions of medieval / venus sized naked women... which is all too
rare in the era of the waif (1960-2000)... peter uses a high production
style (which is best suited for peter's visions) and high artistic
ideas... an abstract, yet, concrete british film... a greenaway
masterpiece...
40. a zed and two noughts :
yet, another fascination... peter greenaway is a full-fledged cinematic
genius... this film is about as "bizarro" as one could ever hope for...
i will allow you to explore this one without hindrance from me, thank
you...
44. the cook, the thief, his wife, and her lover :
peter greenaway directs 'the cook...' with beautiful color schemes and
grotesque scenes of shit eating, book page exfixiation, cannibalism,
etc... a nice irony to the film...
horrific/beauty... and a albino choir boy thrown in for good measure...
(the above was from my 'film fifty' list...