8 1/2 Women
by Peter Greenaway
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Canada
DVD details
Actor: Amanda Plummer, John Standing, Matthew Delamere, Toni Collette, Vivian WuDirector: Peter Greenaway
Brand: Lions Gate
Writer: Peter Greenaway
Producer: Bob Hubar
Producer: Denis Wigman
Producer: Jimmy de Brabant
Producer: Kees Kasander
Producer: Kosaku Wada
Producer: Michael Pakleppa
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); Italian (Original Language); Japanese (Original Language); Latin (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Running Time: 118 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-08-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of 8 1/2 Women
DVD Review: Mixed Effort From A Great Filmmaker
Summary: 2 Stars
Peter Greenaway's films are always a challenge, even for his most devoted admirers. I am a member of that group. I traveled 90 minutes each way to see his new film '8 1/2 Women'. His films are incredibly (really, an understatement) complex, both visually and narratively. Like most filmmakers, he has his ups ('The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover', 'The Pillow Book', 'Drowning By Numbers' and 'The Draughtsman's Contract') and his downs ('A Zed and Two Naughts', 'Belly of An Architect'). Unfortunately, '8 1/2 Women' is not one of his best.
I read a review of the film that stated it was his most accessible in years. Yes, I can see that. This means that Greenaway has stripped away six or seven layers of narrative that usually happen concurrently in his best films. He has dumbed down the visual style while retaining a story that is not very focused.
We seem to be experiencing a bit of a trend. Some of the most intelligent filmmakers are dumbing down their work to reach a new audience while dissatisfying their core audience. Woody Allen's latest film is a farce with none of the depth he is known for. The result? 'Small Time Crooks' will probably be his most successful film in years. Robert Towne created an overly simplistic blueprint for the stunts in 'Mission Impossible 2'. The result? The screenplay works, but the audience is told the core of the mission six times. Now Greenaway directs a film with one layer of narrative, robbing his own film of the richness and depth he has done before. What's next? Martin Scorcese directing Leonardo DiCaprio? Oh, that's actually happening.
If you have never seen a Peter Greenaway film, and most of you probably haven't, a little background is probably in order. Greenaway is a painter and spent some time doing set design for operas. He brings both of these sensibilities to his films. When the film is good, it is a glorious mixture of all of these elements creating truly beautiful films. His longtime cinematographer, Sacha Vierny, is a great asset to the visual style. He also likes to experiment with words and narrative. For instance, the beginning of 'The Pillow Book' combined a layer of film that had Japanese Calligraphy, the writing of the Pillow Book, and two separate scenes going on on top of that. Your eye is always watching something. Your mind is always working. In 'Drowning By Numbers', the numbers 1 through 100 appear in the actual film in some form or another. In 'The Cook, The Thief...', each separate room in an elaborate restaurant has a color scheme of it's own, affecting the color of the character's clothing. '8 1/2 Women' makes a brief attempt at combining various elements, showing pieces of the screenplay with insets of pachinko parlors. The rest of the film is set in a single estate. Frankly, most of the film appeared grainy.
A rich Geneva banker and pachinko parlor owner mourns the loss of his wife. His son tries to comfort his father and suggests, after watching Fellini's '8 1/2', that they fill the house with a harem of women. This will help the father to experience the variety of sexual activity that he has recently discovered and also make the house seem less empty. The pachinko parlors are really a very weak point of the story. It seems to merely serve as a method for Greenaway to introduce Asian females into the story line.
As the father and son populate the harem (with the likes of Amanda Plummer, Toni Collette, Vivian Wu and Polly Walker), they talk incessantly. In most of Greenaway's works, the characters have lengthy conversations, but they were far more interesting. He seems to be trying to shock us with words rather than images in this film. Yes, there is a lot of nudity, both male and female, but it doesn't shock. The discussions they have concerning beastiality, incest, etc., are simply boring.
His films also take a while to make it to the US. Because of this, he frequently can attract up and coming stars to appear in his films, usually nude, before they are really famous. As I mentioned, Toni Collette (Best Supporting Actress nominee for 'The Sixth Sense', 'Muriel's Wedding') appears in the film as a Swedish nun. In 'The Pillow Book', Ewan McGregor played a central part. He has also had Ralph Fiennes and Julia Ormond in his films.
Greenaway has created some of the best films I have ever seen and experienced. Greenaway is a master filmmaker and definitely deserves a larger audience. Unfortunately, this film isn't that good.
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Description of 8 1/2 Women
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