#126 Peter Greenaway
Ranked ListIn college, Peter Greenaway was my snobby artist pick for any deep conversation about cinema art. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover was my first NC-17 film (and in a movie theater) and The Baby of Macon was my first bootleg. I watched both many times, even though they were difficult films for many reasons. That's what made Drowning By Numbers such a blast. It was both Greenaway's most light-hearted film and a game - For those that don't know, the numbers 1 - 100 appear in order during the course of the film - while retaining his formal style.
I watched and enjoyed others, but The Pillow Book broke the spell and I went from finding Greenaway fascinating to finding him dull. That one film made me lose interest in seeking out other work. It's been at least 10 years since I've watched a Greenaway film. For this project, I'll be seeking out
The Falls (1980). I'm also curious about
Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015), since I'd like to see what a modern Greenaway film looks like and I just read up about Eisenstein's Mexican work last week.