Peter Greenaway

[Tommaso]

Gee, it's brilliant. And almost as much a self-parody as Lynch's "Lady Blue Shanghai" for Dior.

[colinr0380]

"Mum, the Maharaja has brought the horse into the drawing room again!"

Colour coding, boxes within boxes, symmetry, birds, writing, art appreciation, food. That is certainly the Peter Greenaway aesthetic! Although no naked people and brutal murder here, at least on display for the camera.

[DeprongMori]

According to a BFI calendar for 2022, Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract will be seeing a bit of a 40th Anniversary celebration in the fourth quarter.

Peter Greenaway (BFI Distribution/BFI Player/BFI Southbank/BFI Blu-ray/UK-wide – Oct/Nov) – includes a 40th anniversary BFI Distribution re-release of the BFI National Archive 4K remaster of The Draughtsman’s Contract in cinemas UK-wide and on BFI Blu-ray

[beamish14]

According to a BFI calendar for 2022, Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract will be seeing a bit of a 40th Anniversary celebration in the fourth quarter.

Peter Greenaway (BFI Distribution/BFI Player/BFI Southbank/BFI Blu-ray/UK-wide – Oct/Nov) – includes a 40th anniversary BFI Distribution re-release of the BFI National Archive 4K remaster of The Draughtsman’s Contract in cinemas UK-wide and on BFI Blu-ray

I wonder if The Hedgecutters, the parallel film that Greenaway has long intended to make from cut footage, is still on the docket.

[senseabove]

Excellent news! An easy double dip for me. Now here's hoping we don't have to wait 'til 40 for The Cook...

[PercivalJames]

Does anyone have information as to which of his earliest films were confirmed to be publicly/commercially released contemporaneously? In other words, were all these short films from the sixties to the first half of the seventies amateur films that were released later at retrospectives and on DVD, or were they being submitted to festivals or showing before feature-films at the time?

[HJackson]

He turns 80 in three days. Wonder if he’s renegotiated his pact with death.

[MichaelB]

I believe he has, but I forget the source.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

A Variety profile that confirms Greenaway won't be taking himself out of commission this year, and in fact intends to go on as long as possible:

“The death date for most white males in Europe is 81 and a half, so I have one and a half years left,” he says. “Let’s hope I can stretch that out a bit. I have loads and loads of movie scripts all ready to go.”

He also says "I believe death is unnecessary" and this his collaboration with Morgan Freeman (which is set to shoot later this year) "tries to find a reasonable notion for suicide." Curiously enough, the script for this film was published in January, and one of the other unfilmed scripts discussed in the article—the "sacrilegious" Joseph—was published in 2016 to seemingly no notice whatsoever. Also available are his scripts for a film about Oskar Kokoschka and a sequel to Death in Venice.

[beamish14]

It seems that Shout Factory now holds Baby of Macon in North America. Better late than never! They also seem to have 8 1/2 Women, so I can retire the atrocious R1 DVD

This retrospective/lecture series looks great. I’m so happy the Cinematheque went the extra mile and shipped in Harvard’s print of Drowning by Numbers

[beamish14]

Pretty remarkable in-person tribute to Greenaway in Los Angeles has come to a close. A few stray observations from the final evening, which included Greenaway’s “Landscape” lecture and a 35mm screening of Drowning by Numbers:

-his film on Brancusi, Walking to Paris, is complete but the negatives are stuck in a Rome lab. He screened a trailer and the opening of it, both of which show a work that looks impressive and has a number of touches I haven’t seen in previous works, like some aerial drone shots

-“The average European male now lives to 81. A film’s gestation is about 9 months in total, so being 80, I hope to finish at least two more films.”

-He referred to the 3 female leads of Drowning as being “good, but not great actors.”

-Asked about some current filmmakers who excite him, he mentioned that Resnais is still his #1, and gushed about an “American filmmaker by way of England” whose films “never have a wasted shot”. That auteur is Ridley Scott, who the moderately observed is actually older than Greenaway. He is particularly fond of Hannibal

-He noted Brian Dennehy’s difficulty and hesitance with nudity in The Belly of an Architect, which had screened the night before. Dennehy’s daughter approached Greenaway that evening and told him that he considered it to be the best film he ever appeared in

[Robin Davies]

-Asked about some current filmmakers who excite him, he... gushed about an “American filmmaker by way of England” whose films “never have a wasted shot”. That auteur is Ridley Scott, who the moderately observed is actually older than Greenaway. He is particularly fond of Hannibal

Wow, that's a surprise. He's spent years slagging off "dominant", narrative-based cinema.

[beamish14]

-Asked about some current filmmakers who excite him, he... gushed about an “American filmmaker by way of England” whose films “never have a wasted shot”. That auteur is Ridley Scott, who the moderately observed is actually older than Greenaway. He is particularly fond of Hannibal

Wow, that's a surprise. He's spent years slagging off "dominant", narrative-based cinema.

I forgot to mention that he also expressed an admiration for Lynch and Cronenberg, but he feels that the latter has “stolen” from him!

[criterionoop]

-He referred to the 3 female leads of Drowning as being “good, but not great actors.”

Actually, he called them "mostly competent."

[beamish14]

-He referred to the 3 female leads of Drowning as being “good, but not great actors.”

Actually, he called them "mostly competent."

Was that it? Nobody can ever accuse the man of not being blunt. I enjoyed his critique of American society as well.

I got him to sign my copy of the script for Lucca Mortis, his upcoming project with Morgan Freeman. He asked me where I’d bought it, as he said it was published just 6 weeks ago

[MichaelB]

-Asked about some current filmmakers who excite him, he... gushed about an “American filmmaker by way of England” whose films “never have a wasted shot”. That auteur is Ridley Scott, who the moderately observed is actually older than Greenaway. He is particularly fond of Hannibal

Wow, that's a surprise. He's spent years slagging off "dominant", narrative-based cinema.

He's long been on record as a Ridley Scott fan. A quick Google has turned up several interviews in which he praises Scott's ability as an image-maker, citing Blade Runner and Gladiator as particular favourites. (I can see why the director of The Belly of an Architect would be keen on the latter!)

And their careers have largely been conducted in parallel: both were art-school trained in the 1960s (hence Greenaway's respect for Scott's visual literacy), in the 1970s, Scott made commercials while Greenaway edited COI propaganda films, both had wider breakthroughs (albeit on substantially different scales) at the turn of the 1980s, a couple of years later Blade Runner and The Draughtsman's Contract were released within weeks of each other, and both are exceptionally prolific and, to a surprising extent given the quality of their best work, critically somewhat sidelined.

[colinr0380]

-Asked about some current filmmakers who excite him, he... gushed about an “American filmmaker by way of England” whose films “never have a wasted shot”. That auteur is Ridley Scott, who the moderately observed is actually older than Greenaway. He is particularly fond of Hannibal

Wow, that's a surprise. He's spent years slagging off "dominant", narrative-based cinema.

Hannibal does have an art appreciation lecture scene, an opera, grand guignol murders staged like pieces of performance art, a critique of the tasteless and coarsening appropriation of culture by the nouveau riche (and those aspiring to be so, who enable them), an important handwritten letter between the two main characters and a final dinner sequence to rival Greenaway's famous scene from his most famous film, so I could understand him appreciating that film in particular.

[criterionoop]

-He referred to the 3 female leads of Drowning as being “good, but not great actors.”

Actually, he called them "mostly competent."

Was that it? Nobody can ever accuse the man of not being blunt. I enjoyed his critique of American society as well.

I got him to sign my copy of the script for Lucca Mortis, his upcoming project with Morgan Freeman. He asked me where I’d bought it, as he said it was published just 6 weeks ago

I got him to sign my COOK/THIEF poster (original American one sheet) and asked him a question about A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS (the newspaper scenes have references to the plots of DROWNING BY NUMBERS and THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT). He called me a "very observant" viewer and gave me a "Bravo!"

[dda1996a]

-Asked about some current filmmakers who excite him, he... gushed about an “American filmmaker by way of England” whose films “never have a wasted shot”. That auteur is Ridley Scott, who the moderately observed is actually older than Greenaway. He is particularly fond of Hannibal

Wow, that's a surprise. He's spent years slagging off "dominant", narrative-based cinema.

I forgot to mention that he also expressed an admiration for Lynch and Cronenberg, but he feels that the latter has “stolen” from him!

Well, A Zed and Dead Ringers do have a lot in common...

[aurevoir]

-his film on Brancusi, Walking to Paris, is complete but the negatives are stuck in a Rome lab. He screened a trailer and the opening of it, both of which show a work that looks impressive and has a number of touches I haven’t seen in previous works, like some aerial drone shots

Stuck?

[beamish14]

-his film on Brancusi, Walking to Paris, is complete but the negatives are stuck in a Rome lab. He screened a trailer and the opening of it, both of which show a work that looks impressive and has a number of touches I haven’t seen in previous works, like some aerial drone shots

Stuck?

The producers/financiers need to pay the lab for their services, and it will be in purgatory until that happens.

[Quote Perf Unquote]

-“The average European male now lives to 81. A film’s gestation is about 9 months in total, so being 80, I hope to finish at least two more films.”

I'm confused, I though this guy was gonna off himself when he reached 80? Or was that just an irresponsible narcissistic blowhard pronouncement of the type artists are often fond of uttering, like Tarantino's "Ten and Done" malarkey?

I think his shorts are wonderful, not keen on his longer, later work.

[beamish14]

-“The average European male now lives to 81. A film’s gestation is about 9 months in total, so being 80, I hope to finish at least two more films.”

I'm confused, I though this guy was gonna off himself when he reached 80? Or was that just an irresponsible narcissistic blowhard pronouncement of the type artists are often fond of uttering, like Tarantino's "Ten and Done" malarkey?

I think his shorts are wonderful, not keen on his longer, later work.

He has no intention of dying by suicide, although he is presently concerned about issues pertaining to euthanasia and transhumanism, and he will be exploring these in his new feature

[knives]

But yes, he has decided to put off any suicide attempts for now due to a change of mind.

[felipe]

-his film on Brancusi, Walking to Paris, is complete but the negatives are stuck in a Rome lab. He screened a trailer and the opening of it, both of which show a work that looks impressive and has a number of touches I haven’t seen in previous works, like some aerial drone shots

Stuck?

The producers/financiers need to pay the lab for their services, and it will be in purgatory until that happens.

Gosh, it's taking forever. Feels like this movie has been ready for the past 5 years.