Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, CBEis a British film director, screenwriter, and artist. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. Common traits in his film are the scenic composition and illumination and the contrasts of costume and nudity, nature and architecture, furniture and people, sexual pleasure and painful death...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth5 April 1942
mean views intellectual
As you probably know, I'm often accused of intellectual exhibitionism and all forms of elitism. Although I can understand this point of view, it's a rather wasted argument because, if we regard areas of information as being elite and therefore somehow not usable, it means our centre-ground of activity becomes very, very impoverished.
believe views hands
On the other hand, I view the whole matter from a cosmic perspective. I don't take a position. I believe that there are no more positions to take, no certainties, no facts. Many people find this confusing about my films; they say I am hiding out behind irony. But from a cosmic viewpoint, it is eternally unimportant whether one lives or not.
days films people
These days more films are going to people than people are going to films,
book collected died father five knowledge loss notes scattered small suitcases
My father died. His ornithological knowledge, never collected or collated in anything like a comprehensible book - it was five suitcases and two trunks of scattered notes - died with him. A loss of knowledge. I made a film in small part reparation.
angry capital city composed emotional fall famous gallery immediate national opposed process reaction regarding
You don't go into the National Gallery of any famous capital city and cry, sob, laugh, fall about on the floor, become very angry - it's a completely different reaction. It's a reaction which is to do with a much more composed sense of regarding an image; it's a reaction with a thought process as opposed to an immediate emotional reaction.
either films
I think it is really important to be in some way provocative - either intellectually or viscerally - in the films one makes.
emotional thinking doctors
I always think that if you deal with extremely emotional, even melodramatic, subject matter, as I constantly do, the best way to handle those situations is at a sufficient remove. It's like a doctor and a nurse and a casualty situation. You can't help the patient and you can't help yourself by emoting. And I don't think cinema is intended for therapy, so I object also to that huge, massive manipulation which is perpetrated on the public.
scratches
Itch to read, scratch to understand.
cinema dead-ends ends
Cinema has reached a dead end.
cinema stones playgrounds
Cinema is not a playground for Sharon Stone.
reality needs unreality
We don't need virtual reality, we need virtual unreality.
strange unusual share
I share this interest in the weird, strange, unusual, surreal.
thinking profound want
I don't want to be a film-maker. I think painting is far more exciting and profound.
people
I obviously irritate people. I obviously antagonise them.