CINEFILER

Peter Greenaway

Born
April 5, 1942
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 Information. This early period culminated in "The Falls" (1980), a three-hour mockumentary indexing the strange effects of the VUE (the Violent Unknown Event) on 92 people whose names begin with the letters F-A-L-L. He made his dramatic feature film debut with "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), and throughout the 1980s directed a string of critically acclaimed and frequently controversial films: "A Zed & Two Noughts" (1985), "The Belly of an Architect" (1987), "Drowning by Numbers" (1988), and his best-known work, the vicious Thatcher-era satire "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989). In the 1990s, he directed the Shakespeare adaptation "Prospero's Books" (1991), controversial religious satire "The Baby of Mâcon" (1993), erotic drama "The Pillow Book" (1996), and "8½ Women" (1999), an homage to the films of Federico Fellini, a major influence on Greenaway. In the early 2000s, Greenaway embarked on the ambitious "Tulse Luper" project, a multimedia body of historical fiction revolving around the life of the eponymous fictional hero. In addition to novels, CD-ROMs, online material, and a touring exhibition, the project spawned a trilogy of feature films: "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story" (2003), "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea" (2004), and "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish" (2004). The trilogy was followed by a fourth feature, "A Life in Suitcases" (2005), which abridges the Tulse Luper saga into a single film. Since the mid 2000s, Greenaway's film work has focused on idiosyncratic, heavily fictionalised biopics dedicated to some of his favourite artists: Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn in "Nightwatching" (2007), Dutch Baroque engraver Hendrik Goltzius in "Goltzius and the Pelican Company" (2012), Soviet Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein in "Eisenstein in Guanajuato" (2015), and Romanian-French sculptor Constantin Brâncuși in "Walking to Paris" (TBD). Greenaway has lived and worked in Amsterdam since the mid 1990s. He is married to artist Saskia Boddeke, with whom he has two children. He also has two children from a previous marriage to potter Carol Greenaway.
Known For
Nightwatching
(2007)
Director
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
(1989)
Director
The Draughtsman's Contract
(1982)
Director
Drowning by Numbers
(1988)
Director
The Pillow Book
(1995)
Director
The Baby of Mâcon
(1993)
Director
8 ½ Women
(1999)
Director
A Zed & Two Noughts
(1985)
Director
The Falls
(1980)
Director
Lumière and Company
(1995)
Director
The Belly of an Architect
(1987)
Director
Full Filmography
Directing
Death of Sentiment
(1962)
Director
Train
(1966)
Director
Tree
(1966)
Director
5 Postcards from Capital Cities
(1967)
Director
Revolution
(1967)
Director
Erosion
(1971)
Director
H Is for House
(1973)
Director
Intervals
(1973)
Director
Windows
(1975)
Director
Water Wrackets
(1975)
Director
Savile Row
(1976)
Director
1-100
(1976)
Director
Dear Phone
(1976)
Director
Goole by Numbers
(1976)
Director
Eddie Kidd
(1978)
Director
Vertical Features Remake
(1978)
Director
Leeds Castle
(1979)
Director
A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist
(1979)
Director
The Falls
(1980)
Director
Act of God
(1980)
Director
Terence Conran
(1981)
Director
Zandra Rhodes
(1981)
Director
The Exile
(1981)
Director
The Draughtsman's Contract
(1982)
Director
Four American Composers: Philip Glass
(1983)
Director
Four American Composers: John Cage
(1983)
Director
The Sea in Their Blood
(1983)
Director
Four American Composers: Meredith Monk
(1983)
Director
Four American Composers: Robert Ashley
(1983)
Director
Making a Splash
(1984)
Director
Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London & Oxfordshire
(1985)
Director
A Zed & Two Noughts
(1985)
Director
The Belly of an Architect
(1987)
Director
Drowning by Numbers
(1988)
Director
Hubert Bals Handshake
(1989)
Director
Fear of Drowning
(1989)
Director
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
(1989)
Director
A TV Dante
(1990)
Director
M Is for Man, Music and Mozart
(1991)
Director
Death in the Seine
(1991)
Director
Prospero's Books
(1991)
Director
A Walk Through Prospero's Library
(1992)
Director
Darwin
(1992)
Director
Peter Greenaway: A Documentary
(1992)
Director
Rosa
(1992)
Director
The Baby of Mâcon
(1993)
Director
Stairs 1 Geneva
(1994)
Director
Lumière and Company
(1995)
Director
The Pillow Book
(1995)
Director
8 ½ Women
(1999)
Director
The Death of a Composer: Rosa, a Horse Drama
(1999)
Stage Director and Director
The Man in the Bath
(2001)
Director
The 92 Faces of Peter Greenaway
(2002)
Director
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story
(2003)
Director
Cinema16: British Short Films
(2003)
Director
The Tulse Luper Suitcases: Antwerp
(2003)
Director
Visions of Europe
(2004)
Director
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea
(2004)
Director
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish
(2004)
Director
The European Showerbath
(2004)
Director
Writing on Water
(2005)
Director
A Life in Suitcases
(2005)
Director
Nightwatching
(2007)
Director
Rembrandt's J'Accuse...!
(2008)
Director
The Wedding at Cana
(2009)
Director
Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth
(2012)
Director
3x3D
(2013)
Director
Goltzius & the Pelican Company
(2014)
Director
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
(2015)
Director
Giovanna D'Arco
(2016)
Stage Director and Director
Luther and His Legacy
(2017)
Director
The Missing Nail
(2019)
Director
Hotel Royalty Since 1887
(2021)
Director
Acting
Editing
Camera
Writing
Intervals
(1973)
Writer
H Is for House
(1973)
Writer
Water Wrackets
(1975)
Writer
Windows
(1975)
Writer
1-100
(1976)
Writer
Goole by Numbers
(1976)
Writer
Dear Phone
(1976)
Writer
Vertical Features Remake
(1978)
Writer
A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist
(1979)
Writer
The Falls
(1980)
Writer
Zandra Rhodes
(1981)
Screenplay
The Draughtsman's Contract
(1982)
Screenplay
Four American Composers: Philip Glass
(1983)
Writer
Four American Composers: Meredith Monk
(1983)
Writer
Four American Composers: John Cage
(1983)
Writer
Four American Composers: Robert Ashley
(1983)
Writer
The Sea in Their Blood
(1983)
Writer
A Zed & Two Noughts
(1985)
Writer
The Belly of an Architect
(1987)
Writer
Drowning by Numbers
(1988)
Writer
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
(1989)
Screenplay
M Is for Man, Music and Mozart
(1991)
Writer
Prospero's Books
(1991)
Screenplay
Darwin
(1992)
Writer
The Baby of Mâcon
(1993)
Writer
The Pillow Book
(1995)
Writer
8 ½ Women
(1999)
Screenplay
The Death of a Composer: Rosa, a Horse Drama
(1999)
Writer
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story
(2003)
Writer
The Tulse Luper Suitcases: Antwerp
(2003)
Writer
Visions of Europe
(2004)
Writer
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish
(2004)
Writer
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea
(2004)
Writer
Writing on Water
(2005)
Writer
A Life in Suitcases
(2005)
Writer
Nightwatching
(2007)
Writer
Rembrandt's J'Accuse...!
(2008)
Screenplay
3x3D
(2013)
Writer
Goltzius & the Pelican Company
(2014)
Writer
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
(2015)
Screenplay
The Missing Nail
(2019)
Screenplay
Crew
Production
Data provided by TMDB