Peter Greenaway’s PROSPERO’S BOOKS was one of the first films I watched that made me exclaim: “Wait, you can do this with film? This is fucking incredible and mesmerizing and so rich!”
Then I found myself flabbergasted, without words as how astounding this adaptation of THE TEMPEST was.
(I will note: I was lucky enough to see Greenaway lecture after a screening of THE PILLOW BOOK. It was just as elucidating and British and pretentious as you might think!)
So, what you might not know is that there’s an entire book that details not just the script of PROSPERO’S BOOKS, but also drafts and illustrations and more detailing the work behind the production.
I happened upon it while garagesaling and was shocked to have stumbled upon it because? Yes, I fucking love this film, and to have such a gloriously detailed work that features so many film captures and details so much of process and also contains the full script is a marvel.
I’ll also note? PROSPERO’S BOOKS has never received a quality digital transfer. I do have a Blu-Ray of it, but it’s a shitty transfer of the really shitty DVD transfer. Maybe one of these days it’ll get the visual justice it deserves.
Either way, if you can find a copy of this text? (It is very hard to find now, sadly, since folks like me hold their copies tight.) I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s a rare look into a rather secretive creator, and the fact that it’s one of his greatest works is just icing on the cake.
Prior to procuring a copy of PROSPERO’S BOOKS, I somehow finagled a copy of BEING NAKED PLAYING DEAD by Alan Woods.
I’d like to say it was at a screening of THE PILLOW BOOK in Chicago, at the prior lakefront version of Chicago’s THE FILM CENTER, but that’s impossible as THE PILLOW BOOK is heavily detailed in said text, and Greenaway was there to discuss his oeuvre as part of the film’s launch.
What drew me to Greenaway initially was his overlapping and juxtapositions of images. I found them so deep, so painterly, so mannered in their overlays.
His works used all of the trappings of modern music videos — this was at a time where most music videos weren’t even considered low art — and imbued life and nuance and meaning into them.
Upon visiting his older works, I realized he had been doing the exact same thing — albeit without the elaborate digital and VFX — with text and landscapes for quite some time.
It was BEING NAKED PLAYING DEAD that brought most of that to my eyes.
This is an immaculately designed text, one that is so visually sumptuous. If you’ve seen the frame from the film Jones utilizes for a point? You can’t help but think: “That is the perfect frame. That encapsulates everything!”
Enough cannot be said for the graphic designer. While over-intricate designs were the style of the 90s — holy fuck do I miss that, as opposed to the cookie cutter templates that passes for design today — Jones’s paragraph and quotational structure almost mirrors Greenaway’s. It is succinct.
Not only is it perfectly designed, but it’s a brilliant collection of visual and textural artifacts, interview excerpts, all to accompany an in-depth analysis of his work. Woods set out to create a definitive look at Greenaway’s career and succeeded wildly.
Unlike PROSPERO’S BOOKS, you can procure a copy of BEING NAKED PLAYING DEAD relatively easily, both in hardcover and softcover.
Additionally, there is a scanned copy available via archive.org if you must, but this is a work that can only be fully appreciated in your hands.