I have a love/hate
relationship with the movies of the eccentric auteur,
Peter Greenaway. Although his plotting is almost
irrelevant and his concepts are so eccentric as to defy
summarization, I have found some of his movies charming,
quirky, intellectually engaging, and aesthetically
brilliant.
I think Pillow Book is an aesthetic marvel, although I
have to admit the purity of
my aesthetic appreciation was rarely polluted by any
comprehension of what the hell was going on. I think
Drowning by Numbers is a masterpiece of eccentric art and
puzzle construction, smarter and artier than, but
comparable to, TV's "The Prisoner". I think
"A Zed and Two Noughts" is one of the best examples of "moving
pictures" as art - a true moving painting, although is stranger than
strange. As for "Prospero's Books" - well, it is unusual
and quite a feast for the senses, although Elya reminded
me that it was the most pretentious thing she's ever
seen. And this from a Russian woman who has seen all of Tarkovsky's movies. I mean - more pretentious than
"Nostalghia"? That's pretty friggin' pretentious. Maybe she
has a point, but I still think the movie is a stunner in a lot of ways.
But on the other hand, Greenaway's eccentricities can
be irritating and boring and uncomfortable to watch. "The Draughtsman's
Contract," one of the director's most respected achievements, could be the single most boring
non-Russian movie I've ever
seen. "Eight and a Half Women" isn't that slow, but it doesn't
possess enough of his Greenaway's strengths, and is too deeply
rutted in personal eccentricities, intellectual
aloofness, film theory and artistic theory.
It starts out with the death of a beloved wife, after
which the sole son consoles his stiff banker dad by
having sex with him. So right away you know this ain't
gonna be a Touchstone Pic. Then, together, they assemble a mansion full of
concubines to fill up their grieving lives. A sub-plot
about the bank's foreclosing on a Japanese businessman
gives Greenaway an excuse to indulge his fascination with
Japanese art, aesthetic design, and flower arrangement. He's obsessed
with other aesthetic forms than the Japanese. Italian as well. There are at least
two tributes to Fellini's "8 1/2": in the
title, obviously, and in the fact that the father and son
watch that Fellini classic twice.
The movie has some striking visual composition, and a
truly excellent performance from the older man, John
Standing. It also has some interesting discussions about
filmmaking, the engineering marvel of the penis, Kabuki
theater and various other subjects that you won't find
discussed in the next Bruce Willis movie. For example,
one Japanese woman wants to become a female impersonator
so she can be more feminine - because the female
impersonators in Kabuki are trained in every nuance of
feminity.
I'll be honest. I try to support individualistic
filmmakers like Greenaway, because I admire solitary and
unique geniuses and their disregard for the copycat
formulae of Hollywood. We need such people, and who else
but Greenaway could even conceive of making such a movie
as this? I really wanted to like this movie.
But in the last analysis, I really wanted it to end.
