Adapting The Tempest

The Crimson recently spoke with Peter Greenaway, director of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover and the recently released Prospero's Books, a film adaptation of The Tempest. The following are excerpts from that conversation:

Q: Your movies emphasize the visual aspect of film heavily. Many of your scenes look painstakingly composed, like baroque painings.

A: Well, I started my career as a painter and an art historian. Painting is undersung-99% of all films have a literary base. Film should have more confidence in itself; it should rely on other art forms. All these art forms are related. What I would like to do is regard cinema as a visual meeting with the audience. In a way it isn't. It relies too much on soundtrack, dialogue, story. Continuity of painting through and into cinema is important. You need an attitude of composition, color coding, symbols and metaphors. Cinema is going to die.

Q: What do you mean, "Cinema is going to die"?

A: There is every evidence that celluloid cinema is going to die. The new technology is leading away from it. The Japanese are throwing away the screen and projector and replacing it with large television screens. Much more information is purveyed in television. But one could almost foretaste the end of television even. The relation to painting is still important.

Q: But painting and photography still exist, despite changes in technology.

A: Well, photography changed the world of painting. It led the way to film.

Q: But what is the difference between "celluloid cinema" and bigger television screens?

A: Audience appreciation. Television has only vowels-a simple approach. It's not very sensitive to extremes of light and dark. Cinema handles it better. TV prefers close-ups, movement. Cinema is social-the audience must move towards it. TV is passive-selection is not important. 90% of the audience's concentration is on cinema screen. It's not much more than 50% for TV. For my films, the audience needs to pay attention... We need to develop a visual language, a combination of song dances, calligraphy, all contemporary languages.

Q: The first [movie of yours] I saw was Cook, which was somewhat disturbing.

A: We must be adult. We have to take responsibility for violence. The people who walk out are the people I'm attacking. They want to ignore their responsibilities for violence and sexual attack.

Q: Do you see yourself as Prospero?

A: Prospero is a man at the end of his life. I'm still middle-aged. He is interested in reconciliation and rebirth. We are all little Prosperos. Without knowledge we can obliterate the world. But we cannot throw away our books.

Q: There is a reflective element in nearly all your movies-a character who could be called the director.

A: Who would you say is that character in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover?

Q: The cook.

A: Yes. The cook creates the spaces...Some critics have complained that there is too much Greenaway [in Prospero's Books] and not enough Shakespeare. So often the director is just a witness. I prefer a director who wants to create a universe in all its parts.

Q: How do you feel about accusations about your work being obscure?

A: I received vitriolic press for Prospero's Books. American critics called me obscurantist. People assume there's only one kind of cinema-Hollywood-with some kind of emotional rapport between audience and screen.

There are other areas that can be examined. All satisfactory art can be appreciated at different levels. If we continue to keep out elitist, private forms of information, there's a way that film-making will become blander and blander. I don't want to be a private cineaste who is only seen in clubs and university campuses. However difficult [my films] are, I'm determined to be seen by a larger audience.

Q: How do you feel about the difficulties your films have had with the American ratings system?

A: As a foreigner it's always difficult to understand another country's censorship system. America was the only country that banned The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. It was somewhat surprising. Characteristics about it are disturbing...

Q: Do you think the X-rating helped you get your "larger audience?"

A: It's difficult to tell. Miramax milked it. It became a talking point, which is what I wanted to do. I wanted it to be a narrative situation between me and the audience.

Q: What are you working on currently?

A: A film titled 55 Men on Horseback. It's an English western set in the 1760's. It's all about horses. I'm doing some new experiments, combining black-and white with color. It's also a love story, maybe my first.

Interview conducted by Peter D. Pinch.