Peter Greenaway

Peter Greenaway

Born: April 5, 1942
in Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK
Peter Greenaway, CBE (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh writer-director, painter, and video artist based in Amsterdam. Throughout the late 1960s and '70s, he produced several experimental documentary/mockumentary shorts while working as a film editor for the Central Office of Information. This early period culminated in "The Falls" (1980), a three-hour mockumentary indexing the strange effects of the VUE (the Violent Unknown Event) on 92 people whose names begin with the letters F-A-L-L. He made his dramatic feature film debut with "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), and throughout the 1980s directed a string of critically acclaimed and frequently controversial films: "A Zed & Two Noughts" (1985), "The Belly of an Architect" (1987), "Drowning by Numbers" (1988), and his best-known work, the vicious Thatcher-era satire "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989). In the 1990s, he directed the Shakespeare adaptation "Prospero's Books" (1991), controversial religious satire "The Baby of Mâcon" (1993), erotic drama "The Pillow Book" (1996), and "8½ Women" (1999), an homage to the films of Federico Fellini, a major influence on Greenaway. In the early 2000s, Greenaway embarked on the ambitious "Tulse Luper" project, a multimedia body of historical fiction revolving around the life of the eponymous fictional hero. In addition to novels, CD-ROMs, online material, and a touring exhibition, the project spawned a trilogy of feature films: "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story" (2003), "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea" (2004), and "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish" (2004). The trilogy was followed by a fourth feature, "A Life in Suitcases" (2005), which abridges the Tulse Luper saga into a single film. Since the mid 2000s, Greenaway's film work has focused on idiosyncratic, heavily fictionalised biopics dedicated to some of his favourite artists: Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn in "Nightwatching" (2007), Dutch Baroque engraver Hendrik Goltzius in "Goltzius and the Pelican Company" (2012), Soviet Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein in "Eisenstein in Guanajuato" (2015), and Romanian-French sculptor Constantin Brâncuși in "Walking to Paris" (TBD). Greenaway has lived and worked in Amsterdam since the mid 1990s. He is married to artist Saskia Boddeke, with whom he has two children. He also has two children from a previous marriage to potter Carol Greenaway.

Movies for Peter Greenaway...

Peter Greenaway: The Film Architect - Beyond The Belly of an Architect
Title: Peter Greenaway: The Film Architect - Beyond The Belly of an Architect
Character: Himself
Released: June 25, 2023
Type: Movie
In this previously unseen backstage documentary, Peter Greenaway responds with great generosity to the open-ended questions posed by an off-camera Gideon Bachmann about the process which led to the creation of one his most important films, The Belly of an Architect, giving contemporary audiences an insight into his ideas, the rigour of his reflections and the development of the project.
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The Missing Nail
Title: The Missing Nail
Character: (voice)
Released: December 1, 2019
Type: Movie
A short ironic film about a Missing Nail in the iconography of Christ and his depiction in da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper.
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Tintoretto: A Rebel in Venice
Title: Tintoretto: A Rebel in Venice
Character: Self
Released: February 25, 2019
Type: Movie
Five hundred years after his birth, the life and career of the Italian Renaissance's last great painter is explored.
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The Greenaway Alphabet
Title: The Greenaway Alphabet
Character: Peter Greenaway
Released: October 5, 2018
Type: Movie
The fascinations of filmmaker Peter Greenaway, whose motto is "art is life and life is art,"are captured like butterflies and arranged in an alphabet, a form that suits him perfectly as an encyclopedist. In intimate conversations with his perceptive 16-year-old daughter Zoë, we discover the whos, whats and whys about Greenaway.
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The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch
Title: The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch
Released: December 30, 2016
Type: Movie
Exhibition on Screen's latest release celebrates the life and masterpieces of Hieronymus Bosch brought together from around the world to his hometown in the Netherlands as a one-off exhibition. With exclusive access to the gallery and the show, this stunning film explores this mysterious, curious, medieval painter who continues to inspire today's creative geniuses. Over 420,000 people flocked to the exhibition to marvel at Bosch's bizarre creations but now, audiences can enjoy a front row seat at Bosch's extraordinary homecoming from the comfort of their own home anywhere in the world. Expert insights from curators and leading cultural critics explore the inspiration behind Bosch's strange and unsettling works. Close-up views of the curiosities allow viewers to appreciate the detail of his paintings like never before. Bosch's legendary altarpieces, which have long been divided among museums, were brought back together for the exhibition and feature in the film.
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The Wedding at Cana
Title: The Wedding at Cana
Character: Some characters (uncredited)
Released: January 1, 2009
Type: Movie
A short film by Peter Greenaway. It depicts the painting The Wedding Feast at Cana by Paolo Veronese, through mixed media and shows different perspectives.
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Rembrandt's J'Accuse...!
Title: Rembrandt's J'Accuse...!
Character: Himself / Public Prosecutor
Released: October 4, 2008
Type: Movie
J'accuse is an 'essay-istic' documentary in which Greenaway's fierce criticism of today's visual illiteracy is argued by means of a forensic search of Rembrandt's Nightwatch. Greenaway explains the background, the context, the conspiracy, the murder and the motives of all its 34 painted characters who have conspired to kill for their combined self-advantage. Greenaway leads us through Rembrandt's paintings into 17th century Amsterdam. He paints a world that is democratic in principle, but is almost entirely ruled by twelve families. The notion exists of these regents as charitable and compassionate beings. However, reality was different.
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Cinema16: British Short Films
Title: Cinema16: British Short Films
Character: Self - Commentary, Dear Phone (voice)
Released: May 5, 2003
Type: Movie
This critically acclaimed DVD contains 16 of the best classic and award winning British short films and delivers a snapshot of British cinema past and present. It includes films from Britain's most exciting new talent alongside early shorts from it's most successful filmmakers' amongst them Chris Nolan (Memento, Insomnia, Batman Begins), Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Alien), Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies) and Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours). 01 About a Girl - Brian Percival 02 Boy & Bicycle - Ridley Scott 03 Dear Phone - Peter Greenaway 04 Doodlebug - Christopher Nolan 05 Eight - Stephen Daldry 06 Gasman - Lynne Ramsay 07 Girl Chewing Gum - John Smith 08 Home - Morag McKinnon 09 Joyride - Jim Gillespie 10 Inside Out - Tom & Charles Guard 11 Je T’aime John Wayne - Toby Macdonald 12 The Sheep Thief - Asif Kapadia 13 The Short & Curlies - Mike Leigh 14 Telling Lies - Simon Ellis 15 UK Images - Martin Parr 16 Who’s My Favourite Girl? - Adrian J. McDowall
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The 92 Faces of Peter Greenaway
Title: The 92 Faces of Peter Greenaway
Character: Himself
Released: January 1, 2002
Type: Movie
Peter Greenaway discussing a variety of topics, with each segment ranging in length from 6s to 2m47s.
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The Death of a Composer: Rosa, a Horse Drama
Title: The Death of a Composer: Rosa, a Horse Drama
Character: Narrator
Released: September 4, 1999
Type: Movie
"Rosa", with a libretto by Peter Greenaway and score by Louis Andriessen, is the first in a projected series of 10 operas, each dealing with the death of a famous composer - some real, others fictional. "Rosa" falls into the latter category; it tells the story of Juan Manuel de Rosa, a Brazilian who went to study music in America but spent most of his time in the cinema instead, becoming particularly entranced by Westerns. Now 32 years old and residing in an abandoned Uruguayan slaughterhouse, Rosa has become one of Hollywood's foremost composers, specialising in Westerns. He also has a beautiful 19-year-old fiancee, Esmeralda, but he pays her little heed, instead lavishing his attentions on a black mare named Bola. One day, a group of men attired as cowboys arrive at the abattoir and kill both Rosa and Bola; an investigation is conducted, with particular suspicion!
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Peter Greenaway: A Documentary
Title: Peter Greenaway: A Documentary
Character: Himself
Released: August 14, 1992
Type: Movie
Searching for the roots of Peter Greenaway in his films, this artful documentary begins with a workshop from 1991 in which Peter Greenaway discusses his film career, from his early short Revolution (1968) to The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989). Including a rare and exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette "A Walk Through Prospero's Library", with Greenaway discussing the inspiration for his classic film, Prospero's Books (1991).
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Fear of Drowning
Title: Fear of Drowning
Character: Himself
Released: February 7, 1989
Type: Movie
Peter Greenaway presents this "Commentary in one hundred parts" on Drowning by Numbers (1987), discussing and analyzing many of the film's more intriguing features.
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Hubert Bals Handshake
Title: Hubert Bals Handshake
Character: Narrator
Released: January 1, 1989
Type: Movie
Peter Greenaway remembers his first meeting with Rotterdam Film Festival director Hubert Bals.
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The Falls
Title: The Falls
Character: Interviewer
Released: November 19, 1980
Type: Movie
The exploration of the effects of an unexpected catastrophe, known as VUE (violent unknown event) through the bios of 92 survivors.
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Dear Phone
Title: Dear Phone
Character: Narrator
Released: January 1, 1976
Type: Movie
A narrator relates a variety of peculiar stories involving characters with the initials HC and their dealings with telephones. These are interspersed with artistic shots of telephone boxes in a variety of locations.
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Windows
Title: Windows
Character: Narrator
Released: January 1, 1975
Type: Movie
A sort of documentary on the people known to have fallen out of windows in a certain time frame in a certain geographical location. One of Greenaway's early short films.
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H Is for House
Title: H Is for House
Character: (voice)
Released: January 1, 1973
Type: Movie
Ostensibly, a film about a child's pictorial alphabet stuck on the letter H.