"Because of their special relationship with sheep, shepherds are disqualified..." [from playing Sheep & Tides.]
-- voiceover --
from DROWNING BY NUMBERS
DROWNING BY NUMBERS
written and directed by Peter Greenaway
Starring Joan Plowright Bernard Hill
If THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER is a necessity to see (which I think it is,) then DROWNING BY NUMBERS is a diversion.
Take a bit of Fellini and a bit of Agatha Christie and you get DBN: three generations of women plot to and eventually do destroy the men in their lives. But this isn't the fun part.
The fun part is in the detection necessary on the part of the viewer to find the numbers embedded in the scenes. But bear in mind that on a video rental, much detail will be lost and also the copy I saw was not letterboxed, so portions of the frame were missing from time to time. It is also a distraction to be sure, but the film _is_ about games. [After viewing it a second time, I still missed quite a few numbers, including #1 !]
DROWNING BY NUMBERS is a game and a good game at that. It's a combination of TEN LITTLE INDIANS and JULIETTE OF THE SPIRITS. If you follow Greenaway's work you'll want to catch up on this if you haven't seen it before.
I am drawn into these works and am glad I have made the effort to see all the Greenaway films of which I am aware. It seems that much of the superior filmmaking these days is once again being done by Europeans (Vincent Ward, Wim Wenders, and Greenaway.) And if it weren't for vid. stores we more than likely wouldn't have a chance to see any of them.
lon@execpc.com
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