On Viewing of Peter Greenaway

Blog 23 Oct 2013

So I picked Peter Greenaway at first because I heard he was an auteur with a Fine Arts background and a bit of an artist himself.

Peter Greenaway, Chernobyl 1986, 90.5X61cm

Well little did I know I would be picking someone that, for my generation mind you, was such a cult film “Phenom”.  Realizing that I am viewing a series of films from this producer as would “Joe… the Plumber”.  Except I’m just “Moe… the Po-Po” and don’t have all the liberal frame of mind just yet that an artist of my generation should.  However, I sense that I’m getting there because I actually saw five of his films not just once but several times each.  I reviewed: A Zed and Two Naughts; The Belly of an Architect; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; The Pillow Book; and Nightwatching.  At first, with the exception of Nightwatching, I thought who would pay to watch such a thing?  (The typical Hollywood produced, no make that induced, reaction to a movie of Greenaway)  After time for absorption I am absolutely fascinated.  Admittedly, sometimes I had to restart them because they were long and tedious to watch.  Like 2hrs is the norm for Greenaway!  However, often I was re-starting them because they were intricate enough to visually re-view.  Either way it was still nothing short of being the witness to a train-wreck…  You want to look away out of fear…  Then you look back because of that very same fear…  Then you look away out of respect for the dead… Then you look back because you cannot control your own curiosity!  I don’t necessarily describe this as a “cult films” in the most popular genre one would think of when one mentions cult film.  This is not just death for the sake of gore.  See, as only he would have it, Greenaway’s film take on a defiantly different approach.  Greenaway has challenged the conservative film format and aspired to tear down their walls.  At the core of his films are the sins that break our humanity.  His films center around opulence, greed, gluttony, tragedy, conspiracy, treachery, sex & sexuality and murder & death.  In all of these films I was forced to ask what would I do in these same situations?  I think that any director that can force you to confront these same issues in such a personal manner deserves to have his own cult following.  Then there is the visual renaissance and baroque presentations alone that also warrants him a cult following.  Greenaway attempts to draw direct correlations to film and other art via sheer visual “Homage” to the great artists of history.  His films take on direct aspects of theater.  At other time he creates scenes that are direct likenesses paintings of the old masters.   His highly praised films include: A Zed and Two Naughts, The Draughtsman’s Contract; The Belly of an Architect; The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover; Drowning by Numbers; The Pillow Book; 8 ½ Women; and Nightwatching.  I addition he has made more recent films that I also intend to explore.