Part II: A Movie about Peter Greenaway
Peter Greeneway
BetaSP, 60:00, col., BRD 1992. Director & Realization: Thomas Klinger,
Herbert Schwering. Production: INTERVALL Münster.
Peter Greenaway is an essay about the english painter and director of
the same name, whose films belong to the most exciting material, that is shown
in cinemas and television. What is new about the concept of the essay is, that
it wants to show not only what Greenaway has done as a feature-film director,
but also show his roots, which are first of all his paintings - you mustn't
forget, that Peter Greenaway is a trained painter! - and the films, of which
most are shorts, he made before he became famous with The Draughtsman's
Contract.
You can divide the whole filmic oeuvre of Peter Greenaway in two phases: The
first was from 1965 to 1980 and the second lasts from then on until now. In his
first phase, Greenaway was employed as an editor. He had no money, so he had to
make films without actors, without sceneries, without the help of other people
even. This financial fact together with his avantgarde thoughts about filming,
which led into non-narrative films, produced films like Revolution,
Intervals, Windows and so on. Very experimental films, but not at least
arid. You can already recognize the esprit, what makes a Greenaway film to a
Greenaway film. Background of this esprit is his unbelievable knowledge of
European cultural and political history and his experiences, his eye of a
painter. No shot in a Greenaway film has been made by accident and is not bound
into a strong and well thought structure. Every film, Greenaway made, proves,
that cinema can be the over-art, the art form, in which all the other art forms
can be expressed.
Peter Greenaway wants to show these roots, by presenting two complete short
films: Revolution, produced by himself in 1968, is the oldest Greenaway
film, which has been published. Which is wrong, because it is not published
yet: Revolution was never broadcasted or shown in public cinemas.
Revolution comes directly out of the treasury of Peter Greenaway. You
can say, it is a pre-Greenaway, which shows in the way, how the visual material
is edited to the accords of the Beatles-song "Revolution". Music as structure!
The second short, A Walk Thraugh Prospero's Library, is in fact the
newest film of Peter Greenaway. It is produced in 1992 on Dl standard. It shows
in perfection, how Peter Greenaway has developed his language of cinema making.
Again it is the soundtrack, which has a very important role to play. So you can
see, that there is a strong and direct line between his very first and his, at
the moment, very last film.
All the material, which is used in Peter Greenaway, is brand new. The
film team of Intervall, which is the producercompany of both of the
essay and of the short, was the only one, who was allowed to follow Peter
Greenaway on his work in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Düsseldorf. In
Amsterdam, in January of this year, we have seen how his television project
Darwin was shot. Exciting pictures of more than 120 extras on the stage
at one moment and most beautiful shots of the extraordinary sets are combined
with material, that shows how Peter Greenaway is directing his films and which
also throws light on the way, how films are made. In Rotterdam, in February of
this year, we have filmed the exhibition The Physical Self, which was
organized by Peter Greenaway.
He didn't exhibit his own work, but combined artefacts with articles for daily
uses he found in the very large Museum Boymanvan-Beuningen in a way, you have
never seen before. The structure theme was, as the title says, corporeality.
More than 1.500 a day wanted to watch this avantgardistic work! In
Düsseldorf, in March of this year, we could watch Peter Greenaway, working
in a video house, editing the film A Walk Through Prospero's Library.
What no one knew before, was, that most of his paintings are created in those
times!
The backbone of the essay is a seminar, Peter Greenaway headed in May 1991, in
Münster. He followed an invitation of Intervall and told on three
days to 30 young filmmakers, critics and enthusiasts, nearly everything about
his filmic world. There doesn't exist a comparable mass of statements of
himself about himself.
In addition, we have made interviews in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and
Düsseldorf with him, so that the whole mass of superb information about
Peter Greenaway can't be surpassed.
The structure of Peter Greenaway is as follows: Beneath the two short films,
there will be four blocks:
1 ) the seminar, in which he talks about his cinema, from the very beginning
until now.
2) the shootings of Darwin, which will show the actual way, how Peter
Greenaway makes his films today.
3) the exhibition The Physical Self; which throws a light on the
non-filmic activities of Peter Greenaway. Activities, which determin his films
and which he likes more than filming!
4) the postproduction of A Walk Through Prospero's Library, which shows,
how Greenaway handles with the most modern television technology.
