8 1/2 Women

ugh.

Not one of Greenaway's high points, but not as bad as its reputation suggests. It largely depends on how much you buy into the conceit. At first I resisted it, after a while I started to get into it. As a tribute to Fellini, the connections are rather fleeting, but I enjoyed the basic idea of the plot, and its resolution. The dialogue, however, bugged me. The absurdly frank sexual discussion just doesn't work on any level, and by the 7th time I heard someone say "prick" I was bored with it.

"Audiences at Cannes are notorious for their volatility. Yet, few receptions in the festival's 51-year history have been as hostile as that accorded Peter Greenaway's self-regarding tribute to Federico Fellini. Impassioned charges of misogyny were hurled at both director and picture."

Not his best work. Delamere is really bad, and Wu is completely miscast as a Japanese translator (because they all look the same, right?) who seems like she can barely speak the language. There are some brilliant conceits (loved the opening credits), but it often feels choppy and incoherent.

Classic Greenaway. Maybe not his most coherent film, and it feels almost overstuffed with clever ideas that don't amount to much in the end, yet it might also possibly be his funniest.

Patchy Greenaway is quite funny at times, poking fun at the absurdity of male sexual desire, especially when attempting to leap from fantasy to reality where its momentum is thwarted by biology and female agency, among other factors. His intentions were fine, but the acting is often bad (e.g. Delamere and Wu), and the arch dialogue is less successful in this more 'realistic' setting than it is in his Neo-Baroque films where it generally blends into the visual architecture.