Monday, 21 November 2011

Peter Greenaway

Peter Greenaway is a film maker who was recommended to me because of my interest in Wes Anderson's work. I chose to watch The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, and within the first few minutes you can see the similarities between the two directors' work. Greenaway uses a rich colour pallet of crimson red, forest green, white and a cobalt blue in his restaurant scenes, which mixes with the magnificent set built up with huge paintings, long velvet curtains,  gold gilded picture frames and vases, and long white-table clothed dining tables. The thing that impressed me most about this film was the incredibly long shots that he films; they go on for minutes and take considerable discipline from the actors. The way the camera is positioned is another similarity between the two directors because they both use this 'chest' or 'head' height position and film with a sweeping shot. In this film Greenaway seems to use shots that stand back from the scene, so it could almost be a play on stage. Another point to note is that Jean Paul Gautier designed the costumes for this film, and the dresses that he puts Helen Mirren in are just stunning. One of my favourite parts of the film is where she is in the white bathroom and her dress and stockings are white, she then steps out into the red-walled corridor and her dress is red, her stockings and shoes black; it is seamless and one detail that is genius.


Here is the trailer for the film, which displays some of the colour themes and the position of the camera.



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