Peter Greenaway - Nederlands Film Festival

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of painted canvas to make him think he can reconstruct the their last paintings. He ispuzzled and a little anxious at what he finds. He asks questions wich help him make aninterpretation of what the paintings convey.He discovers that Van Eester's painting of the canalside includes the figure of a womanmaking a lewd grimace as she bangs the dust out of a rug - she is non other thanMarietta, Frans Peck's wife and almost certainly Van Eester's mistress. Fabritius'painting - amongst other things - depicts a man urinating against a wheelbarrow - "thewheelbarrow" is Van Eester's nickname on account of the way he walks - pushing hisbelly before him. Whereas the letter being read by Marietta in Peck's painting contains alibellous account of Fabritius's plagiarism.The young German student realises that each painting demonstrates both fiercecompetitive relationship and a vitriolic personal animosity between the painters. He isvery imaginative and especially interested in seeking symbolic meaning - that - after - iswhy he persuaded his father to let him come to Holland to study in the first place -knowing full well how the Dutch secrete so much metaphorical meaning into theirpainting.Further examining the reconstructed paintings - along - with others he has discovered -he finds significance in images of burning candles, conspiratorial meetings, secret letters,barrels of black-powder and he is lead seriously to suspect that the painters themselves -each independently and in his own way - were responsible for the terrible explosion andthat explorion the whole tragic event sadly and terribly backfriend.However - the remaining painters of Delft - not to miss an opportunity - soon pullthemselves together and begin to make good money painting scenes of the explosion,The German student is appalled - especially since he is constantly being asked todescribe his eye-witness account. He remonstrates and harangues the painters on theirlack of compassion and their reprehensible opportunism - he begins to make accusationsthat the explosion was a conspiracy organised by the painters of Delft to stimulatebusiness.One morning, the German student's dead body is found floating in a canal in the outsideDelft.ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZWith an acknowledgement to the dependable, fixed and rigorous characteristics of thealphabet, this address is pedantically organised according to its 26 letters - where thevowels are the substance and the consonants are the supporting comment.Or maby it's the other way around.B.I am a film-maker... not a film-critic or a film-theorist... and I much prefer to be makingfilms than talking about them and since the most satisfying and stimulating part of the
film-making process for me, is in the conception of a new project, to amuse me, andhopefully to amuse you, as well as talking about films I am going to speculate about theconception of some new ones - five new ones - one for each of the vowels of the alphabet.Taking full note of this particular location and occasion - I can still say without anyspecial pleading - that there is considerable evidence in my film-projects - bothcompleted and uncompleted - of a fascination with Holland, Dutch culture and Dutchpainting.Especially Dutch painting. Taking liberties with time-sychronisation and with autorship -it is Dutch painting of the Golden Age - the 16th - 17th and 18th centuries - that is thesubjects, content and starting point of these five new films.U1C.I am a practising film-maker of a minority persuasion who has had the good fortune -due to a certain set of circumstances - not least the support of the Dutch Producer - KeesKasnader - who is sitting among you - to make very personal films that have not beenobliged to reap large financial rewards or court enormous popular support. In the eyes ofsome - this may disqualify me from making any statement about the health of the cinema- or what cinema should be - or could be - or where cinema should go.On the other hand those who believe that cinema is a game of cost effectiveness in amedium of popular entertainment.... and seek great financial rewards by straining andmanipulating to be popular invariably for me produce works that are dull or worthy orworse - usually much worse.However you can hear all the time how I qualify even the strongest statements for I amonly too aware the subjects is fraught with contradictions, ironies and paradoxes - andafter all my personal cinema- practice uses contracdiction, paradox and irony as its firstmajor substance.D.Remembering the exhortations of Menno ter Braak, the insparation of these lectures, Iwould like to speculate in public about some of the charateristics of a cinema that Ipersonally wish to see and wish to make - and maybe such subjective aspirations mayilluminate more general areas.First of all ....j I want to see films made with the freedom that a writer or a painter has with hismaterial - wich questions whether it is necessary for the cinema - all cinema - to pretendto be the popular medium of entertainment many people still think it is.k I want to see films that are prepared to operate as much through an approach to theintellect as to an insistent on making an emotional empathy with its audiance.
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Page 15 and 16: pretentious when it attemps to tack
Page 17 and 18: T.I remember being very irritated a
Page 19 and 20: you anywhere without design - why h
Page 21 and 22: apparent fecundity. A wet nurse is

Peter Greenaway - Nederlands Film Festival

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