Is “minor” Greenaway but only because the narrative is so weak- it’s so splendid visually and distinctively Greenaway—even defiantly so- he clearly doesn’t give a rip
Julia Ormond’s first film (Legends of the Fall), Ralph Fiennes’ second film, and the last film for Philp Stone (the shining, clockwork)
Banned from distribution in the US- it’s a Greenaway film so there’s a ton of nudity and he’s a provocateur for sure with the content
Odd Oracle opening
Avant-garde, literary and an absolutely loaded mise-en-scene—certainly aggressively stylized
The first 20 minutes absolutely kills any momentum for the narrative- it feels stage-bound (way more than his previous work). There’s an audience, so there’s reflexivity (like the opening of Olivier’s Henry V (1944)—a very good film), with jeering (even applause and bows at the end)
You almost have to ignore the plot (and it’s a struggle) and let the visual ambition wash over you over the 122 minute running time—it’s still a marvel of set design
The chess board set piece and rolling tracking shots that emulate a moving painting more than like most cinema—awe-inspiring stuff
The décor is loaded with red, royalty and blood—golds as well
Tough to watch ritual rape and execution
Operatic at times
Candles, feasts, ornate and opulent designs
Another exercise in cataloging from Greenaway—there’s math (literally counting the abusers on the chessboard-like black and white surface) and ritual (with the Ormond rape)- we also have a ritual death and the eating of another person like the cook the thief her wife and her lover
I can’t say it’s a revelation for either Ormond or Fiennes- those revelations would come in 1993 for Fiennes with Schindler’s List and Legends of the Fall for Ormond in 1994
This is a wild one — perhaps best described as the document of a snuff play being staged in the 16? The enclosed play concerns a hideous old woman who gives birth to an improbably beautiful son. The woman s virginal daughter (Julia Ormond) passes off the child as her own, and proclaims him a messiah-like miracle. He is worshipped for a time, but eventually, the people turn against him and his mother. This rather simple story is lavishly obfuscated and complicated with director Peter Greenaway s usual baroque treatment. The sets and costumes are spectacular and, as always, there is plenty of frontal nudity (yup, Ralph Fiennes shows his wee-wee). Three particular scenes are grotesquely violent and bound to turn off many viewers, but if you can get past the first few minutes — where a naked, twitching, undead lunatic sputters some opening lines so laboriously that you won t even understand all the words — you ll probably be able to stomach the rest of the film without any real trouble.
This is a wild one — perhaps best described as the document of a snuff play being staged in the 16? The enclosed play concerns a hideous old woman who gives birth to an improbably beautiful son. The woman s virginal daughter (Julia Ormond) passes off the child as her own, and proclaims him a messiah-like miracle. He is worshipped for a time, but eventually, the people turn against him and his mother. This rather simple story is lavishly obfuscated and complicated with director Peter Greenaway s usual baroque treatment. The sets and costumes are spectacular and, as always, there is plenty of frontal nudity (yup, Ralph Fiennes shows his wee-wee). Three particular scenes are grotesquely violent and bound to turn off many viewers, but if you can get past the first few minutes — where a naked, twitching, undead lunatic sputters some opening lines so laboriously that you won t even understand all the words — you ll probably be able to stomach the rest of the film without any real trouble.
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