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Peter Greenaway shorts
Explore the filmmaking journey of one of Britain’s most acclaimed directors.
Before winning widespread renown and recognition with features such as The Draughtsman's Contract (1982), Peter Greenaway enjoyed a long and fascinating apprenticeship working in shortform and nonfiction film for a variety of institutions.
Beginning his career at the Central Office of Information in 1965, Greenway would edit and direct a huge number of magazine-style items, over a fifteen-year period, for longrunning series such as This Week in Britain (Savile Row, Eddie Kidd, Leeds Castle). While honing his craft there, he simultaneously began to produce his own, self-financed shorts, such as Intervals (1973) and Windows (1974), through which he could further explore some of his idiosyncratic obsessions such as landscape, maps, diagrams, grids and systems of classification.
Later, his experimental and ground-breaking techniques would chime with the remit of the BFI's Production Board and the Arts Council, which funded his more complex and ambitious shorts, A Walk Through H and Vertical Features Remake (both 1978), subsequently leading to his first feature under the Production Board, The Falls, in 1980, and his eventual emergence as one of the key figures in British cinema during the '80s and beyond.
The ExileThe Exile
19813 mins
Like plants, people can either thrive or wither when removed from their native soil, as this short film explores.
Dear PhoneDear Phone
Animation & Artists Moving Image197617 mins
Peter Greenaway casts the ubiquitous red telephone box in a starring role, supported by a thread of stories and conversations.
H Is for HouseH Is for House
Animation & Artists Moving Image19769 mins
A lesson in lexicography, Greenaway's H is For House recounts objects that begin with the letter ‘h’ as seen through the eye of a child.
Eddie KiddEddie Kidd
Cinemagazine19785 mins
Stunt cyclist Eddie Kidd experiences the ups and downs of fame in this COI cinemagazine filmed at Beaulieu.
IntervalsIntervals
Animation & Artists Moving Image19736 mins
Adapting Vivaldi's notation system from The Four Seasons, Peter Greenaway presents a series of images shot in Venice.
Zandra RhodesZandra Rhodes
Government sponsored film198115 mins
Early 1980s portrait of fashion designer Zandra Rhodes, by fellow avant-garde creator, Peter Greenaway.
Savile RowSavile Row
Documentary19765 mins Location: City of London
Greenaway’s profile of one of Savile Row’s best-regarded tailoring establishments.
Terence ConranTerence Conran
198114 mins
Greenaway’s COI-commissioned profile of revolutionary inventor and business entrepreneur, Terence Conran.
The Sea in their Blood: Beside the SeaThe Sea in their Blood: Beside the Sea
Government sponsored film198526 mins
Peter Greenaway’s short COI-commissioned documentary explores Britain’s coastline through a series of images of marine life – the animals who live off the sea, the people who work on the sea and the visitors who come for leisure.
WindowsWindows
Animation & Artists Moving Image19744 mins
Greenaway's mockumentary concerning the causes and consequences of defenestration
Vertical Features RemakeVertical Features Remake
Animation & Artists Moving Image197844 mins
A playful parody of avant-garde theorising and an investigation into the work of Greenaway’s best-known fictional character, Tulse Luper.
Leeds CastleLeeds Castle
Cinemagazine19795 mins
Fashions and pageantry put fabrics to the fore in this COI cinemagazine story filmed at Leeds Castle in Kent.
Water WracketsWater Wrackets
Animation & Artists Moving Image197811 mins
Influenced somewhat by popular child and adult adventure literature such as The Wind in the Willows and Lord of The Rings, Peter Greenaway's short film is a mythological story about a fictional species associated with water.
A Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an OrnithologistA Walk Through H: The Reincarnation of an Ornithologist
Animation & Artists Moving Image197842 mins
Peter Greenaway takes us on a mesmerising journey across mysterious fictional terrains.
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