Prospero's Books

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Prospero's Books
Directed by	Peter Greenaway
Produced by	Masato Hara Kees Kasander Katsufumi Nakamura Yoshinobu Namano Denis Wigman Roland Wigman
Written by	Peter Greenaway
Starring	John Gielgud Michael Clark Michel Blanc Erland Josephson Isabelle Pasco
Music by	Michael Nyman
Cinematography	Sacha Vierny
Editing by	Marina Rodbyl
Release date(s)	November 15, 1991
Running time	129 min.
Country	UK France
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Prospero's Books (1991) is a movie written and directed by Peter Greenaway adapting the Shakespeare play "The Tempest." John Gielgud stars as both the character Prospero and the writer Shakespeare. The film is known for its innovative narrative style and filmic techniques which combine mime, dance, operatic set pieces, and animation. It is also known for its abundant nudity. The musical score is by Michael Nyman and the choreography is by Karine Saporta. Nyman and Greenaway stopped working together with this film after Greenaway rejected Nyman's proposed score and requested that he recycle several pre-existing pieces from an earlier work (La Traversée de Paris) instead to form the bulk of the score, with the exception of the Ariel songs Nyman had composed. While these songs were retained in the finished film, they were edited to remove all instrumental backing.

[edit] Plot summary

The daughter of an exiled magician, Prospero, and the son of his enemy fall in love, and the magician's sprite, Ariel, convinces him to abandon his thoughts of revenge against traitors from his earlier life. Prospero is portrayed in the film as a stand-in for Shakespeare himself and is seen writing and speaking the action as it unfolds. A complex tale based on William Shakespeare's The Tempest.