The Tulse Luper Suitcases

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The Tulse Luper Suitcases is a multimedia project by Peter Greenaway, initially intended to comprise three feature films, a 16-episode TV series, and 92 DVDs, as well as web sites, CD-ROMs and books.

The three features were released in 2003 and 2004. Two books, Tulse Luper in Turin and Tulse Luper in Venice, were published in 2004. As of 2005, an additional feature, A Life In Suitcases, is planned, which will largely be a condensation of material from the first three films.

[edit] Structure

The project has been described by Greenaway as "a personal history of Uranium" and the "autobiography of a professional prisoner". It is structured around 92 suitcases allegedly belonging to Luper, 92 being the atomic number of Uranium as well as a number used by Greenaway in the formal structure of his earlier work (most notably The Falls). Each suitcase contains an object "to represent the world", which advances or comments upon the story in some way, although in many cases the contents are more metaphorical than real.

[edit] Style

The visual style of the three feature films is unorthodox, even compared to other Greenaway films. In many scenes multiple takes, different angles, or identical copies of the same footage are displayed simultaneously within the frame, either superimposed or in discrete "boxes" taking up a small part of the screen. Multiple images are typically offset in time from one another, with a corresponding delay in audio. At times, a written representation of the script also scrolls across the screen as it is performed. The overall effect is similar to The Pillow Book, but because these effects are largely devoted to "narrator"-type characters providing exposition, or primary characters themselves commenting on or responding to the action, the overall effect is more like a visual encyclopedia or a form of interactive media (minus the actual interaction).

The character of Tulse Luper has appeared in several of Peter Greenaway's earlier film works, and in The Tulse Luper Suitcases a substantial portion of Greenaway's output is briefly presented as if it had been filmed by Luper. Other connections to previous Greenaway films include the character Cissie Colpitts, who also appeared in the 1988 feature Drowning By Numbers. Tulse Luper, like Greenaway himself, is a keeper of extensive lists and catalogues, which serve as a sort of prism through which everything is seen. The most notable instance of this in the project is a collection of 1,001 stories which parallel The Book of One Thousand and One Nights in Arabic literature.