I just saw the second film in what's eventually supposed to be three films, a television series, DVD’s, a couple of websites, an online game in 92 puzzles, many books, theatre events and exhibitions, etc etc by Peter Greenaway of "Pillow Book" fame... The films so far are incredible, very strangely presented, somewhat surreal as they tell the story of a somewhat hapless guy and his various adventures in the early 20th century, using lists and the contents of his suitcases. To get an idea of what it's about, look here:
http://www.tulselupernetwork.com/basis.html
and here: http://www.tulseluper.net/
Anybody else seen this, or heard anything about it? I'm pretty well blown away.
― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Thursday, 10 June 2004 05:39 (twenty-two years ago)
i'd like this to be good - i'm sure Greenaway can do something great again but i dont think it's this. what was the gist of the film Lanya? anyone know when (if?) it's coming out?
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 10 June 2004 10:14 (twenty-two years ago)
The first two films were shown this week at the Seattle International Film Festival. It's funny to talk about it in terms of plot, as the purpose of it is to draw your attention more to structure, however, I will rebel against the director's intent ;-) and tell you. A guy from Wales, born around 1912, goes to Utah in the 30s to study lost cities (where some people seem to identify him with the Angel Moroni). Gets into trouble with the proverbial Mormon farmer's daughter; proverbial Mormon sends him to Belgium to keep track of family members involved in fascism there. He's in Belgium, he's in Germany, he's in France, being kept prisoner in various odd places (Vaux, a cinema, etc), and writing plays, lists, articles, operas, etc etc, accused of spying but you never really know if he is. He's not supposed to be killed because this rich Mormon guy is protecting him, but he certainly gets roughed up enough. Oh, he also collects things in 92 suitcases (92 being the atomic number of uranium), so we are shown suitcases full of things like gold, toys, water, etc. Much strangeness in the film - we see several versions of scenes, characters played by different actors, bits of the plays and operas, frames within frames where entirely different things are going on, etc.
The third film is supposed to be out next year; not sure what the timetable is for the rest of it (and how real the rest of it is). Looking WAY forward to it; this was just a really nifty experience.
― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Thursday, 10 June 2004 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)