Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway is a British filmmaker and visual artist. Greenaway's notable feature films include The Draughtsman's Contract (1982), A Zed & Two Noughts (1985), The Belly of an Architect (1987), Drowning by Numbers (1988), The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), Prospero's Books (1991), and Nightwatching (2007). He has also created works in other mediums, notably the multimedia Tulse Luper Suitcases, documentaries, and several video installations. In 2014, he received the BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award. Greenaway's films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Mannerist painting in particular. Common traits in his films are the scenic composition and illumination and the contrasts of costume and nudity, nature and architecture, furniture and people, sexual pleasure and painful death.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
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Photo: Sławek, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Defining films
Critical context
P is for Peter. G is for Greenaway. – Peter Greenaway was born in Newport, Wales in 1942. His father was a builder’s merchant and ornithologist. His mother was a teacher. After the war the family relocated to Essex. In the early 60s Greenaway studied at Walthamstow School of Art in London. Trained as a painter, his first art exhibition was in 1964 at Lord’s Gallery. Over the years Greenaway has continued to exhibit visual works and conceptual pieces in galleries alongside his filmmaking, and he…
Films by decade
