wait, how do you get the half?
This entry's been sitting on the hard drive for way too long, but currentness has never been a hallmark here, right? Onward to movie talk-- what flick had Roger Ebert making the following comment?
"It is not possible to 'like' this film, although one admires it, and is intrigued."
Peter Greenaway's 8 1/2 Women-- am I recommending it? I never really know with Greenaway films. It obviously harkens back to Fellini's 8 1/2, which is one of my favorites, so the willingness to give it a chance was present. Other Greenaway films have interested me (even as I felt giant chunks of artistic and literary allusions were flying over my head in squadron formation), and he did give us extended Ewan McGregor nudity in The Pillow Book, so . . .
This is Philip Emmenthal, rich banker. His wife has just passed away. Should he:
a.) end it all himself, via power tools?
b.) sleep with aforementioned dead wife?
c.) sleep with his son who's in town for the funeral?
d.) give in to grief and eccentricity?
e.) become a merry widower and pursue as many new women as he can?
f.) be a lead character in a Peter Greenaway film that is practically a Beginner's Guide To Greenaway Quirks, Tropes, and Tricks?
'All of the above and then some' is the correct answer. Storey Emmenthal (a delightful imp), working for his father's interests in Japan, comes back to the family manse in Switzerland after his mother's death. In trying to cheer up the discombobulated Philip, Storey takes him to see a matinee of Fellini's 8 1/2.
The dream sequence in 8 1/2 that sees the Marcello Mastroianni character (a Fellini avatar) arriving home for the holidays to a spacious hall where all the women in his life are living in communal bliss (and when they aren't, he brings back order with a bullwhip) gets Philip and Storey talking about what it would be like to have a house full of mistresses. Using Philip's prodigious resources, they decide to give it a try. (A majority of reviews of the film state that they set up a brothel, which would seem to imply to me that they take in customers-- this isn't true, and a more accurate term for Chateau Emmenthal would be seraglio. They're keeping a harem.) (I feel a lot of reviewers also misappropriately label Storey a narcissist when he says he prefers his own cock over any other. Isn't being entranced with one's dick the male default setting? I'm just sayin'.)
The women they gather represent rather familiar cliches or categories: the buttoned up, somewhat mannish businesswoman, a wild gambler, a would-be nun, a delicate, artistically-minded Asian woman, the animal-loving eccentric who seems happiest when on horseback, an aggressive voluptuary, a radiant earth mother type, the devoted maid . . . and the half? A woman whose legs have been amputated (pre-Emmental). Yeah, that sounds just totally off, but she's hardly ever seen in the film and practically no mention is made of her, certainly not anything leeringly perverse. After everyone is moved in and the Big Smex is supposedly underway, about all you see of Philip and Storey is their meeting in the hall when running between domestic tasks, or sneaking off to the masculine domain of the billiard room to admit they're tiring of some of the activity.
In fact, for a set-up that sounds very nudge-nudge wink-wink piggish male fantasy, it's not a very prurient film at all. There's nudity, but it's very matter-of-fact in most cases and the men are full-frontal as often or more than the women. The easy argument is to say this kind of pursuit, keeping, and categorizing of women, and their use at the hands of the Emmenthals, is exploitative and misogynistic, but again, things are not all that simply described. Philip and Storey pursue the women out of vague fantasies but also out of enchantment with each individual woman they meet. The silliness of their half-baked fantasy roles for the women is alluded to in a description of the kabuki actors who portray women onstage: "Training, observation-- fulfilling all the female stereotypes invented by men."
The women start off seemingly conforming to their roles, but quickly are shown as far too aware and intelligent to be debased in this situation, and in fact use the stereotypes put upon them as springboards to a better life. They're miles ahead of Storey and Philip in nearly every situation. Where the Emmenthals persist in seeing a woman only by the role they assigned to them, or underestimating them, well, that comes back to bite them in the ass big time. Nearly every woman takes away more from the Emmenthals that what they had to give, and it's Storey and Philip who seem to be dancing to the ladies' tune, not vice versa.
The major examples of this flip-flop: the would-be nun is able to give herself over to her religious devotions full-time and starts taking in converts, finally ending up cloistered in a nunnery and blackmailing the Emmenthals into making a generous donation to the sisters. Philip is irked when the nun role he saw as mostly wank fodder becomes the woman's true identity, but Storey sensibly points out: "She's only done what you've wanted-- taken your fantasies and run with them to the point of logical exhaustion." And the voluptuary isn't as free-wheeling as you'd think. She sets very strict rules, has both Philip and Story paying court to her (and indeed plays them off one another), organizes the other women of the household into a sort of feminist cabal, and at the end of her contract, walks off with a large cash payment, back into her previous life without a hitch or backward look at the chaos she caused around and between the Emmenthals.
As for how this film represents many of Peter Greenaway's ideas for cinema and storytelling, here are some quotes from the man himself (mined from the fabulous resource The Cinematic Endeavours of Peter Greenaway; see their 8 1/2 Women page here):
"My audience is comprised of three categories. The first category contains the people who decide after the first five minutes that they’ve made a mistake and leave. The second category is the people who give the film a chance and leave annoyed after 40 minutes. The third category includes the people that watch the whole film and return to see it again. If I’m able to persuade 33% of the audience to stay, then I can say that I’ve succeeded."
I've hit each of the three categories with 8 1/2 Women-- was rather delighted with it on first viewing, wasn't in a patient mood for the second and bailed, then had to go back for a third and more.
"Film is such an extraordinary rich medium which can handle so many different modes of operation, combining together in the same place all these extraordinary disciplines which may be executed in their own right - music, writing, picture making of all kinds."
A frequent Greenaway style is to introduce text into the visual setting, which happens very frequently in 8 1/2 Women-- changes in scene or setting are overlaid with what read like pages from the screenplay or treatment:
"There are basically only two subject matters in all Western culture: sex and death. We do have some ability to manipulate sex nowadays. We have no ability, and never will have, to manipulate death."
Obviously, 8 1/2 Women deals almost exclusively with these topics. Some of Philip and Storey's discussions on the topic may seem a bit, er, personal for a father and son chat, but to me they seemed within the realm of the possible as Philip and Storey interact as peers as well as father and son. And it's amazing how many conversations with friends or mere acquaintances divert into talk about sex, in my experience. The reactions of Philip and Storey to death also struck me as very messily realistic.
Greenaway films are hard to take at times because they're very much unlike most movies-- he has no patience for standard ideas of plot progression, pulling people in to a 'believable' world, etc. He's more interested in creating lush visual canvases to present ideas and concepts-- perhaps acted out in a play-like structure, but not crafted as the usual cinematic narrative and not dedicated to creating likeable or relatable characters. If any of the following quotes make you see red, don't see a Greenaway film.
"I want to regard my public as infinitely intelligent, as understanding notions of the suspension of disbelief and as realising all the time that this is not a slice of life, this is openly a film."
"I think my films are very English. That certain emotional distance, interest in the world, interest in irony. These are all deeply English propositions."
"There are, after all, approaches to be made other than the dependable routes that massage sentimental expectations and provide easy opportunities for emotional identification."
"If you want to tell stories, be a writer, not a filmmaker."
"It is not possible to 'like' this film, although one admires it, and is intrigued."
Peter Greenaway's 8 1/2 Women-- am I recommending it? I never really know with Greenaway films. It obviously harkens back to Fellini's 8 1/2, which is one of my favorites, so the willingness to give it a chance was present. Other Greenaway films have interested me (even as I felt giant chunks of artistic and literary allusions were flying over my head in squadron formation), and he did give us extended Ewan McGregor nudity in The Pillow Book, so . . .
This is Philip Emmenthal, rich banker. His wife has just passed away. Should he:
a.) end it all himself, via power tools?
b.) sleep with aforementioned dead wife?
c.) sleep with his son who's in town for the funeral?
d.) give in to grief and eccentricity?
e.) become a merry widower and pursue as many new women as he can?
f.) be a lead character in a Peter Greenaway film that is practically a Beginner's Guide To Greenaway Quirks, Tropes, and Tricks?
'All of the above and then some' is the correct answer. Storey Emmenthal (a delightful imp), working for his father's interests in Japan, comes back to the family manse in Switzerland after his mother's death. In trying to cheer up the discombobulated Philip, Storey takes him to see a matinee of Fellini's 8 1/2.
The dream sequence in 8 1/2 that sees the Marcello Mastroianni character (a Fellini avatar) arriving home for the holidays to a spacious hall where all the women in his life are living in communal bliss (and when they aren't, he brings back order with a bullwhip) gets Philip and Storey talking about what it would be like to have a house full of mistresses. Using Philip's prodigious resources, they decide to give it a try. (A majority of reviews of the film state that they set up a brothel, which would seem to imply to me that they take in customers-- this isn't true, and a more accurate term for Chateau Emmenthal would be seraglio. They're keeping a harem.) (I feel a lot of reviewers also misappropriately label Storey a narcissist when he says he prefers his own cock over any other. Isn't being entranced with one's dick the male default setting? I'm just sayin'.)
The women they gather represent rather familiar cliches or categories: the buttoned up, somewhat mannish businesswoman, a wild gambler, a would-be nun, a delicate, artistically-minded Asian woman, the animal-loving eccentric who seems happiest when on horseback, an aggressive voluptuary, a radiant earth mother type, the devoted maid . . . and the half? A woman whose legs have been amputated (pre-Emmental). Yeah, that sounds just totally off, but she's hardly ever seen in the film and practically no mention is made of her, certainly not anything leeringly perverse. After everyone is moved in and the Big Smex is supposedly underway, about all you see of Philip and Storey is their meeting in the hall when running between domestic tasks, or sneaking off to the masculine domain of the billiard room to admit they're tiring of some of the activity.
In fact, for a set-up that sounds very nudge-nudge wink-wink piggish male fantasy, it's not a very prurient film at all. There's nudity, but it's very matter-of-fact in most cases and the men are full-frontal as often or more than the women. The easy argument is to say this kind of pursuit, keeping, and categorizing of women, and their use at the hands of the Emmenthals, is exploitative and misogynistic, but again, things are not all that simply described. Philip and Storey pursue the women out of vague fantasies but also out of enchantment with each individual woman they meet. The silliness of their half-baked fantasy roles for the women is alluded to in a description of the kabuki actors who portray women onstage: "Training, observation-- fulfilling all the female stereotypes invented by men."
The women start off seemingly conforming to their roles, but quickly are shown as far too aware and intelligent to be debased in this situation, and in fact use the stereotypes put upon them as springboards to a better life. They're miles ahead of Storey and Philip in nearly every situation. Where the Emmenthals persist in seeing a woman only by the role they assigned to them, or underestimating them, well, that comes back to bite them in the ass big time. Nearly every woman takes away more from the Emmenthals that what they had to give, and it's Storey and Philip who seem to be dancing to the ladies' tune, not vice versa.
The major examples of this flip-flop: the would-be nun is able to give herself over to her religious devotions full-time and starts taking in converts, finally ending up cloistered in a nunnery and blackmailing the Emmenthals into making a generous donation to the sisters. Philip is irked when the nun role he saw as mostly wank fodder becomes the woman's true identity, but Storey sensibly points out: "She's only done what you've wanted-- taken your fantasies and run with them to the point of logical exhaustion." And the voluptuary isn't as free-wheeling as you'd think. She sets very strict rules, has both Philip and Story paying court to her (and indeed plays them off one another), organizes the other women of the household into a sort of feminist cabal, and at the end of her contract, walks off with a large cash payment, back into her previous life without a hitch or backward look at the chaos she caused around and between the Emmenthals.
As for how this film represents many of Peter Greenaway's ideas for cinema and storytelling, here are some quotes from the man himself (mined from the fabulous resource The Cinematic Endeavours of Peter Greenaway; see their 8 1/2 Women page here):
"My audience is comprised of three categories. The first category contains the people who decide after the first five minutes that they’ve made a mistake and leave. The second category is the people who give the film a chance and leave annoyed after 40 minutes. The third category includes the people that watch the whole film and return to see it again. If I’m able to persuade 33% of the audience to stay, then I can say that I’ve succeeded."
I've hit each of the three categories with 8 1/2 Women-- was rather delighted with it on first viewing, wasn't in a patient mood for the second and bailed, then had to go back for a third and more.
"Film is such an extraordinary rich medium which can handle so many different modes of operation, combining together in the same place all these extraordinary disciplines which may be executed in their own right - music, writing, picture making of all kinds."
A frequent Greenaway style is to introduce text into the visual setting, which happens very frequently in 8 1/2 Women-- changes in scene or setting are overlaid with what read like pages from the screenplay or treatment:
"There are basically only two subject matters in all Western culture: sex and death. We do have some ability to manipulate sex nowadays. We have no ability, and never will have, to manipulate death."
Obviously, 8 1/2 Women deals almost exclusively with these topics. Some of Philip and Storey's discussions on the topic may seem a bit, er, personal for a father and son chat, but to me they seemed within the realm of the possible as Philip and Storey interact as peers as well as father and son. And it's amazing how many conversations with friends or mere acquaintances divert into talk about sex, in my experience. The reactions of Philip and Storey to death also struck me as very messily realistic.
Greenaway films are hard to take at times because they're very much unlike most movies-- he has no patience for standard ideas of plot progression, pulling people in to a 'believable' world, etc. He's more interested in creating lush visual canvases to present ideas and concepts-- perhaps acted out in a play-like structure, but not crafted as the usual cinematic narrative and not dedicated to creating likeable or relatable characters. If any of the following quotes make you see red, don't see a Greenaway film.
"I want to regard my public as infinitely intelligent, as understanding notions of the suspension of disbelief and as realising all the time that this is not a slice of life, this is openly a film."
"I think my films are very English. That certain emotional distance, interest in the world, interest in irony. These are all deeply English propositions."
"There are, after all, approaches to be made other than the dependable routes that massage sentimental expectations and provide easy opportunities for emotional identification."
"If you want to tell stories, be a writer, not a filmmaker."