The Pillow Book

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Dave S After watching Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book, you can't help but get the feeling that Greenaway is speaking a totally different cinematic language or, at the very least, trying to create a new cinematic language. While the plot, characters, and themes presented are all obviously important, it is the visual presentation in The Pillow Book that really stands out – frames within frames, constantly shifting aspect ratios, superimposed images, and more, to the point where it can feel overwhelming at times, despite its undeniable beauty. This is not a movie for all tastes and, strangely enough, might be more appreciated if the film is read about before being viewed, giving the viewer a better chance in understanding what the hell is going on and, more importantly, why the film looks the way it does, which can be a distraction for an unsuspecting audience during a first viewing. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/08/24 Full Review jeanieforever Waiting for this to come out in 3D. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/05/23 Full Review Audience Member The cinematic/visual style from Greenaway alone makes this so amusing to watch unravel. Almost like silk in cinematic format. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member I loved this movie!! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/01/22 Full Review William L A really interesting premise and a plot that gradually grows more interesting as time passes - a publisher that finds himself increasingly obsessed with books that arrive from an unknown source, each painted on a live human body (and that's a gross oversimplification). Despite all that, The Pillow Book is so alienating in its style, feeling massively pretentious and stuffy as it establishes its main character's particular fascination with calligraphy on her own skin, and tying that practice in with her own sexuality; it's unconventional, reimagining aesthetics and texture for the purposes of its unique narrative hook, but if I said I enjoyed any of that experimentation I'd be lying. The plot itself is miles more engaging and well thought-out than the inconsistent, 'different-for-the-sake-of-being-different' visual composition, I wish Greenaway had left some of his auteurism at home and taken a bit of a more traditional approach with this one. The Pillow Book is bizarre; it's easy to imagine why fans will like the more distinctive elements, but they just weren't for me. Props for originality, but not as much for the quality of the experience. (2.5/5) Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/22 Full Review Audience Member A film about a woman obsessed with the eroticism of calligraphy. Freudian in its treatment of childhood memories. Visually sumptuous. The superposition of frames upon frames is glorious to behold. The film's visual experimentation really worked for me, and gave it the structure of a poem. It plays with linguistics in a really delightful way. Its final scene, in which the narrator reads her own pillow book that the film visually narrates, was like an epiphany. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews

The Pillow Book

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