Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, CBE (born 5 April 1942) is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular. The scenic composition and illumination and the contrasts of costume and nudity, nature and architecture, furniture and people, sexual pleasure and painful death are common traits in his films. Greenaway was born in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales, to a teacher mother and a builder's merchant father. Greenaway's family left South Wales when he was three years old (they had moved there originally to avoid the Blitz) and settled in Essex, England. He attended Forest School in North-East London. At an early age Greenaway decided on becoming a painter. He became interested in European cinema, focusing first on the films of Ingmar Bergman, and then on the French nouvelle vague filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard and, most especially, Alain Resnais. In 1962, Greenaway began studies at Walthamstow College of Art, where a fellow student was musician Ian Dury (later cast in The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover).
Director
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The Draughtsman's Contract
Set in a richly exaggerated 17th-century England, Peter Greenaway's sumptuous brainteaser catapulted him to the forefront of international art cinema. Adorned with intricate wordplay, extravagant costumes and opulent photography, Greenaway's first narrative feature weaves a...Watch Movie -
A Zed and Two Noughts
"Two legs look so good together, don't you think?" A masterpiece of modern cinema, A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS is Peter Greenaway's beautifully disturbing and darkly humorous take on obsession and death. In a horrific automobile-swan accident in front of the Rotterdam Zoo, two women...Watch Movie -
The Falls
Standing at a pivotal point in his filmography, poised between his earlier, witty shorts and the unique pleasures of his post-DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT oeuvre, THE FALLS is arguably the most significant film of Peter Greenaway’s prolific career. Shot as a pseudodocumentary, this magnum opus...Watch Movie -
Vertical Features Remake
A mocking parody of the fictional Institute of Reclamation and Restoration's several attempts to reconstruct (Peter Greenaway alter-ego) Tulse Luper's study of the aesthetic and ecological significance of various trees, posts and poles on the English landscape. Greenaway shows...Watch Movie
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Dear Phone
In these thirteen accounts about the uses and misuses of the telephone, Peter Greenaway attempts to thwart and distort the philosophical notion of a “writers cinema” into what is pure Greenaway: teasing, eccentric and delightfully surreal. Featuring the quintessentially English red phone booth in...Watch Movie -
H is for House
Returning to the house in his earlier film WINDOWS, Peter Greenaway demonstrates his love of the English countryside and displays a distinctive (if rare) autobiographical self with H IS FOR HOUSE. Envisioned as a living, breathing dictionary on film, this epistemological survey of the letter “H”...Watch Movie -
Intervals
INTERVALS is the Peter Greenaway’s self-described “attempt” at creating an entertaining, abstract film; a series of bustling streetscapes from that most photogenic of cities, Venice. Using a self-conscious experiment in frame rate and a structure borrowed from the most Venetian of concertos...Watch Movie
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Water Wrackets
Landscape becomes the central performer and only actor in this rare, mystical short that was Peter Greenaway’s first experiment with the fantastic. WATER WRACKETS’ vast wilderness landscape and soothing soundtrack of babbling brooks vividly recount the battles won and lost by the mythical WATER...Watch Movie -
Windows
Peter Greenaway goes macabre and slightly political in this darkly funny early short. Inspired by a 1960s headline involving a rash of mysterious fatalities among South African inmates, WINDOWS wryly unspools the stories of thirty-seven people who fell to their deaths from windows. Juxtaposing...Watch Movie
Writer
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The Draughtsman's Contract
Set in a richly exaggerated 17th-century England, Peter Greenaway's sumptuous brainteaser catapulted him to the forefront of international art cinema. Adorned with intricate wordplay, extravagant costumes and opulent photography, Greenaway's first narrative feature weaves a...Watch Movie -
A Zed and Two Noughts
"Two legs look so good together, don't you think?" A masterpiece of modern cinema, A ZED AND TWO NOUGHTS is Peter Greenaway's beautifully disturbing and darkly humorous take on obsession and death. In a horrific automobile-swan accident in front of the Rotterdam Zoo, two women...Watch Movie -
The Falls
Standing at a pivotal point in his filmography, poised between his earlier, witty shorts and the unique pleasures of his post-DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT oeuvre, THE FALLS is arguably the most significant film of Peter Greenaway’s prolific career. Shot as a pseudodocumentary, this magnum opus...Watch Movie -
Vertical Features Remake
A mocking parody of the fictional Institute of Reclamation and Restoration's several attempts to reconstruct (Peter Greenaway alter-ego) Tulse Luper's study of the aesthetic and ecological significance of various trees, posts and poles on the English landscape. Greenaway shows...Watch Movie
-
Dear Phone
In these thirteen accounts about the uses and misuses of the telephone, Peter Greenaway attempts to thwart and distort the philosophical notion of a “writers cinema” into what is pure Greenaway: teasing, eccentric and delightfully surreal. Featuring the quintessentially English red phone booth in...Watch Movie -
H is for House
Returning to the house in his earlier film WINDOWS, Peter Greenaway demonstrates his love of the English countryside and displays a distinctive (if rare) autobiographical self with H IS FOR HOUSE. Envisioned as a living, breathing dictionary on film, this epistemological survey of the letter “H”...Watch Movie -
Intervals
INTERVALS is the Peter Greenaway’s self-described “attempt” at creating an entertaining, abstract film; a series of bustling streetscapes from that most photogenic of cities, Venice. Using a self-conscious experiment in frame rate and a structure borrowed from the most Venetian of concertos...Watch Movie
-
Water Wrackets
Landscape becomes the central performer and only actor in this rare, mystical short that was Peter Greenaway’s first experiment with the fantastic. WATER WRACKETS’ vast wilderness landscape and soothing soundtrack of babbling brooks vividly recount the battles won and lost by the mythical WATER...Watch Movie -
Windows
Peter Greenaway goes macabre and slightly political in this darkly funny early short. Inspired by a 1960s headline involving a rash of mysterious fatalities among South African inmates, WINDOWS wryly unspools the stories of thirty-seven people who fell to their deaths from windows. Juxtaposing...Watch Movie
Actor
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The Falls
Standing at a pivotal point in his filmography, poised between his earlier, witty shorts and the unique pleasures of his post-DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT oeuvre, THE FALLS is arguably the most significant film of Peter Greenaway’s prolific career. Shot as a pseudodocumentary, this magnum opus...Watch Movie -
Dear Phone
In these thirteen accounts about the uses and misuses of the telephone, Peter Greenaway attempts to thwart and distort the philosophical notion of a “writers cinema” into what is pure Greenaway: teasing, eccentric and delightfully surreal. Featuring the quintessentially English red phone booth in...Watch Movie -
H is for House
Returning to the house in his earlier film WINDOWS, Peter Greenaway demonstrates his love of the English countryside and displays a distinctive (if rare) autobiographical self with H IS FOR HOUSE. Envisioned as a living, breathing dictionary on film, this epistemological survey of the letter “H”...Watch Movie -
Windows
Peter Greenaway goes macabre and slightly political in this darkly funny early short. Inspired by a 1960s headline involving a rash of mysterious fatalities among South African inmates, WINDOWS wryly unspools the stories of thirty-seven people who fell to their deaths from windows. Juxtaposing...Watch Movie
Editor
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The Falls
Standing at a pivotal point in his filmography, poised between his earlier, witty shorts and the unique pleasures of his post-DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT oeuvre, THE FALLS is arguably the most significant film of Peter Greenaway’s prolific career. Shot as a pseudodocumentary, this magnum opus...Watch Movie -
Vertical Features Remake
A mocking parody of the fictional Institute of Reclamation and Restoration's several attempts to reconstruct (Peter Greenaway alter-ego) Tulse Luper's study of the aesthetic and ecological significance of various trees, posts and poles on the English landscape. Greenaway shows...Watch Movie -
Dear Phone
In these thirteen accounts about the uses and misuses of the telephone, Peter Greenaway attempts to thwart and distort the philosophical notion of a “writers cinema” into what is pure Greenaway: teasing, eccentric and delightfully surreal. Featuring the quintessentially English red phone booth in...Watch Movie
-
H is for House
Returning to the house in his earlier film WINDOWS, Peter Greenaway demonstrates his love of the English countryside and displays a distinctive (if rare) autobiographical self with H IS FOR HOUSE. Envisioned as a living, breathing dictionary on film, this epistemological survey of the letter “H”...Watch Movie -
Intervals
INTERVALS is the Peter Greenaway’s self-described “attempt” at creating an entertaining, abstract film; a series of bustling streetscapes from that most photogenic of cities, Venice. Using a self-conscious experiment in frame rate and a structure borrowed from the most Venetian of concertos...Watch Movie -
Water Wrackets
Landscape becomes the central performer and only actor in this rare, mystical short that was Peter Greenaway’s first experiment with the fantastic. WATER WRACKETS’ vast wilderness landscape and soothing soundtrack of babbling brooks vividly recount the battles won and lost by the mythical WATER...Watch Movie -
Windows
Peter Greenaway goes macabre and slightly political in this darkly funny early short. Inspired by a 1960s headline involving a rash of mysterious fatalities among South African inmates, WINDOWS wryly unspools the stories of thirty-seven people who fell to their deaths from windows. Juxtaposing...Watch Movie
Cinematographer
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Vertical Features Remake
A mocking parody of the fictional Institute of Reclamation and Restoration's several attempts to reconstruct (Peter Greenaway alter-ego) Tulse Luper's study of the aesthetic and ecological significance of various trees, posts and poles on the English landscape. Greenaway shows...Watch Movie -
Dear Phone
In these thirteen accounts about the uses and misuses of the telephone, Peter Greenaway attempts to thwart and distort the philosophical notion of a “writers cinema” into what is pure Greenaway: teasing, eccentric and delightfully surreal. Featuring the quintessentially English red phone booth in...Watch Movie -
H is for House
Returning to the house in his earlier film WINDOWS, Peter Greenaway demonstrates his love of the English countryside and displays a distinctive (if rare) autobiographical self with H IS FOR HOUSE. Envisioned as a living, breathing dictionary on film, this epistemological survey of the letter “H”...Watch Movie -
Intervals
INTERVALS is the Peter Greenaway’s self-described “attempt” at creating an entertaining, abstract film; a series of bustling streetscapes from that most photogenic of cities, Venice. Using a self-conscious experiment in frame rate and a structure borrowed from the most Venetian of concertos...Watch Movie
-
Water Wrackets
Landscape becomes the central performer and only actor in this rare, mystical short that was Peter Greenaway’s first experiment with the fantastic. WATER WRACKETS’ vast wilderness landscape and soothing soundtrack of babbling brooks vividly recount the battles won and lost by the mythical WATER...Watch Movie -
Windows
Peter Greenaway goes macabre and slightly political in this darkly funny early short. Inspired by a 1960s headline involving a rash of mysterious fatalities among South African inmates, WINDOWS wryly unspools the stories of thirty-seven people who fell to their deaths from windows. Juxtaposing...Watch Movie

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