• 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
  • Recommend but not in the top 10 of 1993