Still Lifes in Motion: the artistry of Peter Greenaway

Peter Greenaway is one of Britain’s most ambitious and controversial directors. Since his breakthrough feature The Draughtsman’s Contract, he has used his experience as a painter to create some of the most startling compositions in cinema history. This talk considers how Greenaway’s reimaginings of masterpieces by Vermeer, Hals, and Breughel develop a philosophy of life, death, and decay. His uncanny use of the still life – or nature morte, as it is in French – introduces a stillness to the moving pictures of cinema that unnerves even as it dazzles.

Rather than a reading list, the lecturer suggested that it would be wonderful if members could watch some Greenaway films. Of particular interest will be The Draughtsman's Contract, A Zed and Two Noughts, Drowning by Numbers, and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.

How to book this event:

No booking necessary

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Dr Benedict Morrison

Benedict Morrison is a lecturer in Literature and Film at the University of Exeter. He has recently published a book entitled Complicating Articulation in Art Cinema with Oxford University Press and is now producing works on post-war British comedy films, the response by the arts and humanities to Covid-19, and cultural narratives of extinction. He spent seven years studying at the University of Oxford, but finally traded the dreaming spires for the cultural bustle of London, where he lives with his partner. He loves nothing more than settling down in the darkness of a cinema to enjoy a great film.

GALLERY