The multiplied author: in search of Peter Greenaway's artifices

Author(s)

Gilberto Alexandre Sobrinho

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Artes
• Defense date: 2004-06-12

Examining board members

Ivan Santo Barbosa

• Advisor: Ivan Santo Barbosa

Abstract

The multiplied author: in the search ofPeter Greenaway's artifices In this work, focused on Peter Greenaway's films, I investigate his authorial expression. Dealing with authorship, I took in account the films in their chronological development, to reveal, consequentIy, three realization phases. Thus, under the experimental cinema exploitation from the 60's and, then, faded in the following decade, he produced, directed and edited unexpressed films at first, but, later, he would have institutional sponsorship to develop audacious projects in a late avant-garde route. During the 80's, an abrupt displacement is testified in his films: Greenaway shifted from the experimental ghetto to the art cinema production, distribution and exhibi~ion circuit. Finally, to delimitate the last phase, I consider the relationship among film, television and new media; to accomplish this, a return to the 80's was necessary because Greenaway, since then, has been interacting to the medium, making use of a resistant approach to the dominant audiovisual forms, such as in the early films. In the whole work, the fihns are textually analyzed and a cultural and historical contextualization is envisaged, both aspects addressed to decode an explicit artificial aesthetic fonned under Peter Greenaway's signature (AU)