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Peter Greenaway
Director 84 years old

Peter Greenaway

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... Read full bio →

Directed Films

Every film this person directed

21 titles
Eisenstein in Guanajuato

Eisenstein in Guanajuato

Peter Greenaway 2015 1h 45m

In 1931, following the success of the film Battleship Potemkin, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein travels to the city of Guanajuato, Mexico, to shoot a new film. Freshly rejected by Hollywood, Eisenstein soon falls under Mexico’s spell.

Goltzius and the Pelican Company

Goltzius and the Pelican Company

Peter Greenaway 2012 2h 8m 7.5

Goltzius and the Pelican Company tells the story of Hendrik Goltzius, a late 16th century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints. A contemporary of Rembrandt and, indeed, more celebrated during his life, Goltzius seduces the Margrave of Alsace into paying for a printing press to make and publish illustrated books.

Nightwatching

Nightwatching

Peter Greenaway 2007 2h 15m 8.6

An extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting The Night Watch.

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish

Peter Greenaway 2005 2h 4m

A comic study of 20th-century history, reconstructing the life of writer, creator and professional prisoner Tulse Luper. Born in 1911 Newport and last heard of in 1989, Luper’s life is pieced together from the evidence found in 92 suitcases scattered across the globe.

A Life in Suitcases

A Life in Suitcases

Peter Greenaway 2005 2h

A comic study of 20th-century history, reconstructing the life of writer, creator and professional prisoner Tulse Luper. Born in 1911 Newport and last heard of in 1989, Luper’s life is pieced together from the evidence found in 92 suitcases scattered across the globe.

Visions of Europe

Visions of Europe

Fatih Akin, Aki Kaurismäki 2004 2h 20m 5.0

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea

Peter Greenaway 2004 2h

A comic study of 20th-century history, reconstructing the life of writer, creator and professional prisoner Tulse Luper. Born in 1911 Newport and last heard of in 1989, Luper’s life is pieced together from the evidence found in 92 suitcases scattered across the globe.

The Tulse Luper Suitcases: Antwerp

The Tulse Luper Suitcases: Antwerp

Peter Greenaway 2003 1h 47m

A comic study of 20th-century history, reconstructing the life of writer, creator and professional prisoner Tulse Luper.

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story

The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story

Peter Greenaway 2003 2h 7m 9.0

The first of three parts, we follow Tulse Luper in three distinct episodes: as a child during the first World War, as an explorer in Mormon Utah, and as a writer in Belgium during the rise of fascism. Packed with stylistic flourishes, it's a dense, comic study of 20th century history, revolving around the contents of one man's suitcases.

8 ½ Women

8 ½ Women

Peter Greenaway 1999 2h 1m 5.0

After his wife dies, middle-aged businessman Philip Emmenthal, at the prompting of his playboy son Storey, populates his Geneva villa with eight-and-a-half concubines. Three are from Kyoto, where Storey manages Pachinco palaces.

The Pillow Book

The Pillow Book

Peter Greenaway 1996 2h 6m 7.7

Nagito has a fetish for calligraphy on the human body and meets her ideal soulmate Jerome, an English translator sent to Japan. However, once Nagiko's father's gay publisher rejoins the scene, the story is overtaken by treachery and bloodlust.

Lumière et compagnie

Lumière et compagnie

Liv Ullmann, David Lynch 1995 1h 28m 6.0

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

The Baby of Mâcon

The Baby of Mâcon

Peter Greenaway 1993 2h 2m 10.0

In 17th-century Tuscany, a church play is performed for the benefit of young aristocrat Cosimo. In the play, a grotesque old woman gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. The child's older sister is quick to exploit the situation, selling blessings from the baby, and even claiming she's the true mother by virgin birth.

Prospero's Books

Prospero's Books

Peter Greenaway 1991 2h 6m 7.3

An exiled magician finds an opportunity for revenge against his enemies muted when his daughter and the son of his chief enemy fall in love in this uniquely structured retelling of the 'The Tempest'.

The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover

The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover

Peter Greenaway 1989 2h 4m 8.4

The wife of a barbaric crime boss engages in a secretive romance with a gentle bookseller between meals at her husband's restaurant. Food, colour coding, sex, murder, torture and cannibalism are the exotic fare in this beautifully filmed but brutally uncompromising modern fable which has been interpreted as an allegory for Thatcherism.

Drowning by Numbers

Drowning by Numbers

Peter Greenaway 1988 1h 59m 8.2

Cissie Colpitts drowns her cheating husband and, in the ensuing cover-up, enlists the help of lonely coroner Henry Madgett, an old friend with a longstanding weakness for her charms.

The Belly of an Architect

The Belly of an Architect

Peter Greenaway 1987 1h 58m 7.8

An American architect arrives in Italy, supervising an exhibiton for a French architect, Boullée, who is famous for his oval structures. Through the course of 9 months he becomes obsessed with his belly, suffers severe stomach pains, loses his his wife, exhibition, his unborn child and finally his own life.

A Zed & Two Noughts

A Zed & Two Noughts

Peter Greenaway 1985 1h 56m 8.1

Twin zoologists lose their wives in a car accident and become obsessed with decomposing animals.

The Draughtsman's Contract

The Draughtsman's Contract

Peter Greenaway 1982 1h 48m 7.7

R. Neville, a brash young draftsman, is hired to make a dozen landscape illustrations at the estate of Mr Herbert and his wife Virginia. Aside from monetary compensation, the arrangement includes a sexual liaison offered to Neville by Virginia while her estranged husband is away.

The Falls

The Falls

Peter Greenaway 1980 3h 7m 10.0

The exploration of the effects of an unexpected catastrophe, known as VUE (violent unknown event) through the bios of 92 survivors.

Vertical Features Remake

Vertical Features Remake

Peter Greenaway 1978 45m

Vertical Features Remake is a film by Peter Greenaway. It portrays the work of a fictional Institute of Reclamation and Restoration as they attempt to assemble raw footage taken by ornithologist Tulse Luper into a short film, in accordance with his notes and structuralist film theory.

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