The Pillow Book (1996)
As a young girl in Japan, Nagiko's father paints characters on her face, and her aunt reads to her from "The Pillow Book"... (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Peter Greenaway
Written By: Peter Greenaway, Sei Shonagon
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ken Ogata, Vivian Wu, Hideko Yoshida, Judy Ongg, Yoshi Oida
Country: France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, UK
Where to Stream
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The Pillow Book belongs to 22 collections
1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by kozan26 - 234 stars)
2. Certified weird (collaborative: moderated by Dreamer - 47 stars)
3. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2008 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 39 stars)
4. New York Times' The Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 32 stars)
5. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2010 revision) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 32 stars)
6. Harvard University's Suggested Film Viewing List: Narrative Films (collaborative: moderated by dardan - 12 stars)
7. similar to julien donkey boy (public: kikifas - 8 stars)
8. Male Frontal Nudity (collaborative: moderated by bobyang - 7 stars)
9. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)
10. Filmsite.org - Sex in the Movies, An Illustrated History (collaborative: moderated by afx237vi - 5 stars)
11. Sacha Vierny, Cinematographer (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 4 stars)
12. Full Male Frontal Nudity (Yes, Dick!) (collaborative: moderated by iceblox - 4 stars)
13. NC-17 (collaborative: moderated by Pickpocket - 1 star)
14. Sight and Sound 2002 (Single Vote) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 1 star)
15. Leaving Criterion Channel 4/30/20 (public: owen1218 - 1 star)
16. Sitges: Best Film (collaborative: moderated by Tostadora)
17. Mubi Europe (collaborative: moderated by Svengali)
18. Recommended to Me by Friends (collaborative: moderated by stelkf)
19. Next Up (collaborative: moderated by davidysteph)
20. The Leonard Maltin List (collaborative: moderated by wokelstein)
21. My DVD Collection (public: balseiros)
22. Powerhouse Films Releases (public: kjones77)
Browse the full list of collections
| Date | User | Rating | |
| Feb 27, 2019 |  |
ott | 75 68th |
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honest description of the nature of the relation between an author and a publisher
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| May 25, 2018 |  |
Icarus | 40 8th |
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The screens in the screen left the film feeling busy rather than profound, and all the techniques on display actually draw me away from the emotional content of the film. Not my cup of tea.
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| Feb 22, 2015 |  |
Timon88 | 44 38th |
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The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon is one of my favorite books. Apart from the title and readings of a few passages from the book, this flick has literally nothing to do with that great book, so it's a little mysterious to note that Sei Shonagon is listed as one of the "writers". Instead, it's Greenaway's usual intellectual games--he seems to mistake these for actual plots. Still, it's always nice to see Ewan McGregor naked.
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| Dec 24, 2014 | maknela | 60 3rd |
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Hard to watch, but interesting try to attract different senses as film usually does. But still, hard.
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| Dec 06, 2013 | Ella May | 65 32nd |
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This movie didn't hold my attention.
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| Jun 09, 2012 |  |
glumpy_99 | 50 10th |
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Alternately fascinating and frustrating film is typical Greenaway; full of luscious visual flair and elaborate word games, but unfortunately the underpinning story is so strange and obscure (and told in such a mind-bogglingly convoluted way) that the film becomes borderline unwatchable in many sections, and surrenders to the worst pretensions of 'arty' film-making. Lead actress Wu is quite impressive, but the rest of the cast struggles with their poorly defined characters.
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| Dec 19, 2011 |  |
closedmouth | 90 88th |
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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.
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| Aug 21, 2011 |  |
Svengali | 76 78th |
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Obi-Wan's penis.
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| May 30, 2011 |  |
chemical404 | 49 36th |
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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.
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| Mar 24, 2011 | vininim | 90 90th |
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Slow start but very nice. Interesting story, characters, unusual visuals that fits.
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| Jan 01, 2011 |  |
GeneSiskel | 88 66th |
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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.
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| Jan 16, 2010 | theyshoot10 | 52 4th |
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951
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| Sep 15, 2009 |  |
muutanet | 41 32nd |
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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.
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| Dec 19, 2008 | theyshoot08 | 53 6th |
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931
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| Dec 11, 2008 |  |
Vandelay1 | 59 61st |
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okay movie
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| Sep 23, 2008 | Bruno | 67 26th |
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I need to rewatch it
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| May 27, 2008 |  |
emtilt | 87 90th |
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Mesmerizing. Slightly different in style from other Greenaway films.
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| Oct 13, 2007 |  |
MartinTeller | 75 54th |
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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.
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| Average Percentile 54.83% from 407 Ratings |  |