“Painting by Windows” or "mise-en-page" Aesthetics in Peter Greenaway's Films Cover Image

“Painting by Windows” albo estetyka "mise-en-page" w twórczości filmowej Petera Greenawata
“Painting by Windows” or "mise-en-page" Aesthetics in Peter Greenaway's Films

Author(s): Konrad Chmielecki
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts
Published by: Instytut Sztuki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Peter Greenaway; mise-en-page

Summary/Abstract: Peter Greenaway’s film-making, discussed within the context of British cinema, reveals a number of features that have led British critics and film makers to reject his work. Chmielecki uses the example of Greenaway’s latest films to examine their aesthetics in the paradigm of mise-en-page aesthetics, understood as a variant of surface aesthetics. The adoption of this assumption makes Chmielecki discuss its individual features as: “active surface aesthetics”, the aesthetics of writing (or calligraphy) and Windows aesthetics. The conceptions show the features of Greenaway’s latest films: use of TV pictures and video, morphing as the governing principle of the organisation of visual space, encrustation of writing and the texture of paintings to frames and their visual structure of hypertext. Chmielecki’s conclusion is that the aesthetics of Greenaway’s latest films turns out to be the aesthetics of allegory.

  • Issue Year: 2006
  • Issue No: 53
  • Page Range: 82-99
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Polish