  Film, 1995, UK, Dir. Peter Greenaway The Critics say: 'What marks The Pillow Book out is not merely its partial setting at the millennium, but its millennial or utopian logings. The Pillow Book may have the characteristic 'violence' motifs of a Greenaway film: it also has a curious - and curiously moving - utopian quality.' (Claire Tovey, Sight & Sound) 'Greenaway has found a lush topic for his exotic sensibilities. The Pillow Book is an exquisite work of art - one nearly unsurpassed in the history of cinema. This film is "art" in the truest sense of the word. Greenaway has constructed a dense, multilayered moving canvas.' (Devin D. O'Leary, weeklywire.com) 'Greenaway tried to expand the visual possibilities of the screen by piling on smaller screens and plastering text over images. Sometimes the technique conveys the idea of montage as images in conflict - one picture may linger over subsequent events in a postcard-sized box onscreen. Sometimes it just looks like Windows 95.' (Jim Ridley, weeklywire.com) The Mind says: Arty, yet accessible offering from British iconoclast filmmaker Peter Greenaway. Stunningly shot lucious imagery and a (releatively) coherent narrative combine to create a fascinating filmic experience for those prepared to work at it a bit. Usual Greenaway obsessions dominate (sex, death, text, flesh, y'know - the basics) in this attempt to create a new vocabulary for the feature film through the use of multi-layered images, text and sound. The director even bravely ventures out into a contemporary millennial setting for once, albeit a fussy and hectic one - the film is set in urban Japan and Hong Kong. Drawing on two thousand years of art history (from both East and West) and ten years of computer technology, this film was described as "Terminator 2 for intellectuals" by the director. Style over substance? Probably, but you get the feeling Greenaway wouldn't have it any other way. It does looks like a CD-Rom at times - but this is the future, baby. 
Feel free to Email any opinions to The Mind. Updated 6/5/2000 
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