Prospero's Books. Dir. Peter Greenaway. Perf. Sir John Guelgud, Michael Clark, Isabelle Pasco, and Orpheo. 1991. Videocassette. Media / Video Treasures, 1996.Thanks to the good people of my local libary, I was able to get a copy of Prospero's Books.
Kudos to them (I really don't like that phrase—don't know why I used it) and to the delightful principle of inter-library loan.
Marvelous. Now, on to the blog post proper.
The opening screen of Prospero's Books reads, in part, as follows:
One evening, Prospero imagines
creating a storm powerfrul enough to
bring his old enemies to his island.
He begins to write a play
about this tempest,
speaking aloud the lines
of each of his characters.
It is the story of Prospero's past,
and his revenge . . .
creating a storm powerfrul enough to
bring his old enemies to his island.
He begins to write a play
about this tempest,
speaking aloud the lines
of each of his characters.
It is the story of Prospero's past,
and his revenge . . .
After that, we get this opening, which describes the first in a series of "books" that surround the imagined creation of the play about the tempest. The film is a bit odd—but it's also really rich. And Sir John Guelgud's voice, even with so simple a word as "Boatswain," is remarkable beyond all telling of it.
Links: The film at IMDB.
Click below to purchase the film from amazon.com
(and to support Bardfilm as you do so).
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