Peter Greenaway
Last updated: 05 December 2008
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Peter Greenaway is a film director and painter, though preferring the term 'creator of images', who is best known for his most successful and controversial film The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.
Greenaway was born to English parents in Newport, Gwent in April 1942, his parents having moved to avoid the wartime blitz. He was raised in Essex and in 1962 began studying at Walthamstow College of Art.
He trained for four years and in 1965 joined the Central Office of Information (COI), working as a film editor.
Shortly afterwards Greenaway began to produce his own short films; 1966 saw the release of Train, about the last steam train coming into Waterloo station, and Tree, about a tree growing in concrete outside the Royal Festival Hall.
Greenaway produced his first feature-length film in 1980, entitled The Falls. This was the beginning of a rich creative period in the eighties for Greenaway. In 1982 he released The Draughtman's Contract which garnered critical acclaim and established Greenaway as one of the most original filmmakers of the day.
He followed this up with A Zed & Two Noughts in 1985, a story about twin zoologists Oliver and Oswald whose wives were killed in a road accident.
The Belly of an Architect was released in 1987, which was nominated for the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival the same year, and Drowning by Numbers followed in 1988, a story involving three generations of women called Cissi Colpitts who all kill their husbands.
1989 saw the release of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, and consequently Greenaway's profile rose considerably. During this year he also collaborated with Tom Phillips on a television serial A TV Dante, for which he won the Prix Italia award.
The early 1990s saw Greenaway create Prospero's Books (1991), The Baby of Mâcon (1993) and write an opera libretto series entitled Death of a Composer. His 1995 film The Pillow Book was shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
The turn of the century saw Greenaway embark on a huge multimedia project, The Tulse Luper Suitcases. The project, which is still ongoing is, as cited from Greenaway's official website: 'a series of feature films for the cinema, a television series, numerous DVDs, a Suitcases Exhibition, a live cinema VJ performance, a website, an online internet game, a library of 92 books, and various theatre events, exhibitions and installations'.
A three year worldwide exhibition of the Tulse Luper Suitcases was scheduled for 2008-2011.
In 2007, Greenaway's film Nightwatching, about Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, was released.
During his career he has created over 50 short films and documentaries in addition to producing paintings and novels. He has also curated museum exhibitions and participated in many VJ performances (moving visual art on large display screens that creates a live multimedia performance).
Greenaway currently lives in Amsterdam.
