Peter Greenaway

Directing·Apr 5, 1942·Newport, Gwent, Wales, UK

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Peter Greenaway, CBE (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh writer-director, painter, and video artist based in Amsterdam. Throughout the late 1960s and '70s, he produced several experimental documentary/mockumentary shorts while working as a film editor for the Central Office of Information. This early period culminated in "The Falls" (1980), a three-hour mockumentary indexing the strange effects of the VUE (the Violent Unknown Event) on 92 people whose names begin with the letters F-A-L-L. He made his dramatic feature film debut with "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), and throughout the 1980s directed a string of critically acclaimed and frequently controversial films: "A Zed & Two Noughts" (1985), "The Belly of an Architect" (1987), "Drowning by Numbers" (1988), and his best-known work, the vicious Thatcher-era satire "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989). In the 1990s, he directed the Shakespeare adaptation "Prospero's Books" (1991), controversial religious satire "The Baby of Mâcon" (1993), erotic drama "The Pillow Book" (1996), and "8½ Women" (1999), an homage to the films of Federico Fellini, a major influence on Greenaway. In the early 2000s, Greenaway embarked on the ambitious "Tulse Luper" project, a multimedia body of historical fiction revolving around the life of the eponymous fictional hero. In addition to novels, CD-ROMs, online material, and a touring exhibition, the project spawned a trilogy of feature films: "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story" (2003), "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea" (2004), and "The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish" (2004). The trilogy was followed by a fourth feature, "A Life in Suitcases" (2005), which abridges the Tulse Luper saga into a single film. Since the mid 2000s, Greenaway's film work has focused on idiosyncratic, heavily fictionalised biopics dedicated to some of his favourite artists: Dutch Golden Age painter Rembrandt van Rijn in "Nightwatching" (2007), Dutch Baroque engraver Hendrik Goltzius in "Goltzius and the Pelican Company" (2012), Soviet Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein in "Eisenstein in Guanajuato" (2015), and Romanian-French sculptor Constantin Brâncuși in "Walking to Paris" (TBD). Greenaway has lived and worked in Amsterdam since the mid 1990s. He is married to artist Saskia Boddeke, with whom he has two children. He also has two children from a previous marriage to potter Carol Greenaway.

Film	Credit
Ritratti di cinema2025 · Self	Self
Blondi2025 · Writer	Writer
PPeter Greenaway: The Film Architect - Beyond The Belly of an Architect2023 · Himself	Himself
The Missing Nail2019 · (voice), Director, Writer	(voice), Director, Writer
Tintoretto: A Rebel in Venice2019 · Self, Producer	Self, Producer
The Greenaway Alphabet2018 · Peter Greenaway	Peter Greenaway
Luther and His Legacy2017 · Director	Director
The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch2016 · Actor	Actor
Giovanna D'Arco2016 · Director	Director
Eisenstein in Guanajuato2015 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
3x3D2013 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Goltzius & the Pelican Company2012 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
Atomic Bombs on the Planet Earth2012 · Director	Director
The Wedding at Cana2009 · Some characters (uncredited), Director	Some characters (uncredited), Director
Rembrandt's J'Accuse...!2008 · Himself / Public Prosecutor, Director, Screenplay	Himself / Public Prosecutor, Director, Screenplay
Nightwatching2007 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Peopling The Palaces2007 · Director	Director
GGreenaway: The Shorts2006 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
WWriting on Water2005 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
A Life in Suitcases: A History of Tulse Luper2005 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish2005 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
CClose to Greenaway2004 · Self	Self
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea2004 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
Visions of Europe2004 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
The European Showerbath2004 · Director	Director
The Tulse Luper Suitcases: Antwerp2003 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story2003 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Cinema16: British Short Films2003 · Self - Commentary, Dear Phone (voice), Director	Self - Commentary, Dear Phone (voice), Director
The 92 Faces of Peter Greenaway2002 · Himself, Director	Himself, Director
The Man in the Bath2001 · Director	Director
The Death of a Composer: Rosa, a Horse Drama1999 · Narrator, Director, Writer	Narrator, Director, Writer
8 ½ Women1999 · (uncredited), Director, Screenplay	(uncredited), Director, Screenplay
In the Dark1996 · Director	Director
Lumière & Company1995 · Director	Director
The Pillow Book1995 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Stairs 1 Geneva1994 · Director	Director
The Baby of Mâcon1993 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
Darwin1992 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
Peter Greenaway: A Documentary1992 · Himself, Director	Himself, Director
Rosa1992 · Director	Director
AA Walk Through Prospero's Library1992 · Director	Director
MM Is for Man, Music and Mozart1991 · Writer, Director	Writer, Director
Prospero's Books1991 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
A TV Dante1990 · Director	Director
Death in the Seine1989 · Director	Director
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover1989 · Director, Screenplay	Director, Screenplay
Fear of Drowning1989 · Himself, Director	Himself, Director
HHubert Bals Handshake1989 · Narrator, Director	Narrator, Director