PROSPERO'S BOOKS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Peter Greenaway's Christmas package for
really jaded fans of fantasy or Shakespeare. This film
breaks a lot of rules, but it is still a marvelous and
fascinating retelling of THE TEMPEST in visionary terms. It
may be one of the great fantasy films for just the right
audience. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4).
This has been a year for some unusually visual films. We have seen a man made from liquid metal in TERMINATOR 2. We have seen a beautiful animated fairy tale with BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. But you haven't seen anything like PROSPERO'S BOOKS. Not this year. Probably not any year. Peter Greenaway retells the story of Shakespeare's TEMPEST. Well, in a manner of speaking, that is what Greenaway does. It also, as the title suggests is a tour of Prospero's books. When the scholar and wizard Prospero was ousted as the Duke of Milan and set adrift in a small boat, a friend gave him his twenty-four magical books so that Prospero should not die. Shakespeare does not tell us what the twenty-four books are; Greenaway walks us through the books and shows us the texture of the medieval magic.
Now Prospero knows that the air, the ground, and the sea are thick with spirits. Knowing his books, he is able to see the spirits. Once we start the books, we also see the spirits all around. Spirits generally do not wear clothing and because of the overwhelming number of spirits we see, this film has the most nudity from the greatest number of angles of any film that comes to mind. At almost any given time humans are a tiny minority in the midst of a host of spirits that surround us--at least to the mind of Prospero. And that is what Greenaway has filmed, thumbing his nose at conventions of no or limited nudity. There is a nearly constant ballet of naked spirits of both sexes cavorting around and visually overpowering all humans but Prospero.
Nothing overpowers Prospero. We do not know if the story is happening entirely in Prospero's head or if Prospero has made himself an all-powerful deity playing with mortals as a child might with dolls. Like the child playing, Prospero gives the voices to all his characters, occasionally with the actor providing a shadow voice speaking in near-unison. So while Caliban speaks in gruff Gielgud, Miranda speaks in a dual voice of John Gielgud and Isabel Pasco.
Greenaway's script is almost as daring as his staging. Yes, it does tell the story of THE TEMPEST eventually, using Shakespeare's own lines. But it also describes the great books of Prospero in Shakespearean prose, a writing task the Bard never attempted. Starting with the Book of Water, whose pages were once colorful and are now faded from dampness, each new book is a pleasure if not a total delight. The Book of Mirrors is lined with mirrors. The Book of Architecture has pop-up buildings, some of which become sets. Prospero's whole world can be found in his books. No wonder he prized them over his dukedom!
Greenaway's visual style overpowers his story after slowing it to a halt as dancing and singing spirits get in the way of the plot. The sets are like fanciful intricate paintings with beautiful images. Not content even there, Greenaway overlays and composes images in mattes and multiple exposures. The film is made in high-definition video and takes full advantage of the electronic effects that medium provides.
For more than two hours the viewer is bombarded (with the accent on "bard") with visual image after visual image after visual image (although when he tires of the intellectual content he can take a few minutes of vacation from it watching the naked bodies). The film is challenging and taxing at times. It probably requires a good knowledge of the original play. Recognizing this limitation for United States audiences, Miramax has provided an 8-1/2- by 11-inch cheat sheet card to tell us Yanks what the plot of THE TEMPEST was. I suppose it is a nice gesture, but I am impressed by anyone who can so fast read and remember even this short summary. One rather wonders what Shakespeare would have made of the film.
Greenaway has made yet one more film that will appeal to only a very narrow range of tastes. But as with his COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER (and unlike THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT), I find myself in that splinter. This is a fantasy film that does a great deal that is new but one I cannot recommend without strong reservations. For those with my odd tastes I rate it a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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