GREENAWAY'S PILLOWBOOK
A film review by Julian Lim
Copyright 1997 Flying Inkpot
Directed by: Peter Greenaway Written by: Peter Greenaway Cast: Vivian Wu (Nagiko), Ewan McGregor (Jerome), Yoshi Oida (The Publisher), Ken Ogata (The Father),. Judy Ongg (The Mother), Hideko Yoshida (TheAunt/The Maid). Produced by : Kasander & Wigman Prods./Alpha Films/Woodline Films in association with Channel Four Films, Studio Canal Plus, DeLux Prods Rating : ***** Theatres: Shaw
(Includes English, Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese dialogue)
GRAPHOEROTOMANIA
The First Book - The Book Of The Uninitiated
"It's not a film, it's an ... experience," said my friend, a confessed Greenaway devotee. So, if you have never had the benefit of the experience before, welcome to the weird and wonderful world of Peter Greenaway. A world of strange obsessions, of bodies nude and quartered, of frames within frames and words within pictures. See the amazing tableaux-fashioned scenes, with many wondrous things all happening at once. Hear the sounds of crowds, Japanese chants and French songs, airplanes roaring and even the soundtrack fast forwarding. Thrill to the haunting beginning and the bravura ending.
The Second Book - The Book of The Film
But what's it all about, sir? "I have found that there are but two things in life which are dependable: the delights of flesh and the delights of literature." This quote from the film is itself a quote from the Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, and these then are the twin obsessions of Greenaway's film. The pleasures of Body and Text are woven together in the mind of Nagiko (Vivian Wu), a modern Japanese woman fixated with the writing of words on skin. As a child, her birthday is celebrated with a face-painting ritual by her father, marking Gods creation of human beings from clay figures by writing on them. As an adult, she seeks out lovers who will write over her body, exchanging sex for calligraphy. And then there is a hateful marriage, a passionate love with a translator (Ewan McGregor) , a revenge, and the writing of a series of eleven "Books" on bodies, which are simultaneously an act of love and revenge.
The Third Book - The Book of Logic
Scratching your head, perhaps? And yet, everything in THE PILLOWBOOK proceeds according to an inner logic as inexorable as astrology. Submit to its logic, and everything makes perfect sense. Enter a hall of mirrors: the father exchanges sex for calligraphy just as the daughter does; a burning of books marks Nagikos departure from Japan just as a second fire marks her return. Offhand details all comment obliquely on the films themes: like the scribbling of a car license plate on one hand, or the writing out of a cheque on another.
The Fourth Book - El Buku de Il Auteur
Naturally the film submits also to the logic of the larger Text that is Greenaway's body of work. Fans will detect many links with his other films: the fascination with multiple foreign languages as in THE FALLS, the dissection of the body as in THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HIS LOVER, sex as bargain and exchange as in THE DRAUGHTSMANS CONTRACT, the use of numbers, lists and patterns as in so many of his films. Most obviously, the PILLOW BOOK is a continuation of the obsessions of PROPSPEROS BOOKS, with its similar graphomania, lavish visuals, naked bodies and streams of words layered thick on the screen. You can see whole university courses in the making even as you watch.
The Fifth Book - The Book of the East (Far)
One thing that's new to the Greenaway canon is the PILLOW BOOK's focus on the Orient. But in hindsight, it's easy to think of Japan as an obvious source of Greenaway fascinations: after all, this is a culture that produced ritual suicide, "comfort" houses, Tetsuo and un-useless inventions. The Timeout film guide once described THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT as "a better exploration of an alien world than most science fiction films," and to me, the Japanese world seems as worthy of Greenaway's space probe as any.
The Sixth Book - The Book of Nudity
There's a lot of it in this film. Apparently, at Cannes, an American journalist asked Greenaway why The Pillow Book is so full of naked men. His response: "Trust you, as an American, to ask such an absurd question!".
There is indeed a loud and very silly fat American in this film. He is the Book of the Exhibitionist, and he is naked too, of course.
The Seventh Book - The Book of the Trainspotting Allusion
Ewan Mcgregor dies in a wonderfully melodramatic ritual drug overdose.
The Eighth Book - The Book of Conclusions
A list of splendid reasons to watch THE PILLOW BOOK: for its beautiful images; for its power to send eyes, ears and brain spinning; for its moments of emotional warmth (more frequent than some of Greenaway's other films); because it is extravagantly pretentious and unashamedly arty; because it is awesome, rich and strange.
The Flying Inkpot Rating System: * Wait for the TV2 broadcast. ** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha! *** Pretty good, bring a friend. **** Amazing, potent stuff. ***** Perfection. See it twice.
Julian">href="mailto:clem_lim@pacific.net.sg">Julian Lim is a bonsai waterer in training.
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