951

Very usual Greenaway flick: open nudism (men and women), figures (numbers and text), baths and lots of self-masturbating picture effects. There was also a glimpse of a story somewhere middle of the film. It looks good (most of the time) and score is great as usual. As a story it's pretty empty considering the possibilites of bodypainting with oriental calligraphy.

I still think it's bizarre that Greenaway assumes that Vivian Wu can pass as a Japanese woman, but whatever. Actually, my only problems with this film were Wu related (it took me until about the second act to start enjoying it, but that's probably more my problem than the film's), in that I find her English speaking voice extremely irritating (a problem considering she narrates half the damn thing). Anyway, it gets better as it moves along, as Greenaways often do, and it had me by the end.

Obi-Wan's penis.

Greenaway is a unique filmmaker in that he layers images upon one another in a single frame and doesn't require dialogue to make his films arresting.

Reading a movie and watching a book must be completely ordinary thing for Peter Greenaway. His multi-media meta-art movies don't tell a story, but rather conveys an idea. I am sure this connection between writing and sexuality is very interesting from academic perspective, as is narrative structure employed by Greenway, but this movie is far from being enjoyable without these very specific intellectual interests.

Slow start but very nice. Interesting story, characters, unusual visuals that fits.

Greenaway pulls from his usual bag of tricks: very formal compositions, a fixation with numbering, copious nudity, heightened dialogue. He also makes extensive use of picture-in-picture techniques and dramatic frames within frames. It's sometimes wonderful, but can get distracting. As for the numerous juxtapositions of skin and paper, for the most part it's intriguing but occasionally seems labored. There's some fat that could have been trimmed. I liked the movie but I wouldn't see it again.

931

Mesmerizing. Slightly different in style from other Greenaway films.

I need to rewatch it