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Post by Dramatic Look Gopher on Feb 16, 2018 19:40:33 GMT
I've only seen The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, but that was a long time ago. I do remember liking it, though. It was definitely something very different.
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Post by Eλευθερί on Feb 17, 2018 3:28:35 GMT
"The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover" is the only film I've walked out on as an adult. The first walkouts started about 15 minutes into the film. At the point I left, about 20 minutes before the end, it was a mass exodus. I chatted with the theater employee who had to clean up vomit after some showings. For me, it was a really unpleasant film. I did also see "The Pillow Book" for Ewan McGregor but wasn't a fan of that one either. So I kind of gave up on him as not being to my taste. Just another viewpoint.  I didn't even realize The Pillow Book was a Greenaway. I watched it ages ago, on VHS. It was boring, once the novelty wore off, and I never finished it. (I think I just skipped to the end, but I don't even remember.) |
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Gary
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@gary
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Post by Gary on Feb 19, 2018 6:52:56 GMT
I'm not the most astute movie buff, and I'm rather particular what I spend what little money I have. By the 1990's Peter Greenaway had become rather famous in cinema circles. Here in Chicago 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, Her Lover' and 'Prospero's Books' were well received, although I didn't see either first run. I have since. I was initiated with 1996's 'The Pillow Book', at the behest of a friend. Quite a spectacular movie for me. I'm a visual art lover and there is more than enough to see there. Greenaway is concerned with cinema's relation to literature, so he adds split screen and super imposed elements with text in most of his films. In 'Pillow Book' a main theme is a Japanese woman's obsession with writing on the body, which her father did with her when she was young. This story aligns with Greenaway's concerns nicely and is well illustrated. Quite an eerie movie. I certainly had never seen anything like it and became a fan.
Greenaway is quick to note that he feels he is a painter first then a photographer. So he emphasizes his painterly instincts in his movies. And history, art and otherwise, is often a subtext, with many references. He has gone as far as filming a docudrama about Rembrandt's painting 'The Nightwatch' and it's back story, which I liked enough to purchase the DVD, 'Nightwatching'.
Another interesting effort for me was 2003's 'The Tulse Luper Suitcases'. Tulse Luper is an alter ego of Greenaway's who is referenced virtually throughout his early film's, along with several recurring characters. So TLS is an allegory about the periodic table and the history of uranium, told through the eyes of our intrepid protagonist, who is obsessed with actually tracing it. Being in 3 parts the movie was and is not practical for most theaters, although some attempted screening it. Greenaway made concessions to this by making another edition of the tale with 'Tulse Luper: A Life In Suitcases'. I saw and quite enjoyed that also.
I've now seen most of Greenaway's films, including purchasing a box set, 'The Early Films of....'. I really like 'The Falls', an odd tale of the VUE, the Violent Unknown Event, and it's effects on Britain. Another allegory of course, a subtext about language, and told in a satirical fashion. It reminded me of Monty Python's Flying Circus with it's sight gags and social commentary. I again thought it was quite nice to look at, as I think all his films are, narrative aside.
I can't say I entirely agree with Greenaway's insistence that 'cinema is dead'. He does make some convincing arguments for it's improvement, but I am far from his judgement on that. I like a good story, and if it is well told I'm not concerned with the production.
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Post by Reynard on Feb 20, 2018 2:19:29 GMT
It's interesting how even people who like Greenaway often have completely different favorite films and career phases from his body of work, while still agreeing on what makes him a good and interesting author. I'm not talking only about this thread but also many other Greenaway discussions I've read and had.
It's also common that Greenaway's views about the current state and future of cinema are not at all commonly accepted by his fans, though everyone realizes that his work is always to more or less remarkable degree based on those views, among other things.
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Post by hi224 on Feb 20, 2018 23:50:23 GMT
A huge fan as well.
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