Prospero's Books

Infobox Film
name = Prospero's Books
image_size = 200px
caption = VHS cover for "Prospero's Books"
amg_id = 1:39521
imdb_id = 0102722
director = Peter Greenaway
producer = Masato Hara Kees Kasander Katsufumi Nakamura Yoshinobu Namano Denis Wigman Roland Wigman
writer = Peter Greenaway
starring = John Gielgud Michael Clark Michel Blanc Erland Josephson Isabelle Pasco Mark Rylance
music = Michael Nyman
cinematography = Sacha Vierny
editing = Marina Rodbyl
released =
runtime = 129 min.
country = UK France
language =
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
mpaa_rating =
tv_rating =

Prospero's Books (1991), written and directed by Peter Greenaway, is a cinematic adaptation of "The Tempest", by William Shakespeare. John Gielgud is Prospero, the protagonist who provides the off-screen narration and the voices to the other story characters. Stylistically, "Prospero's Books" is narratively and cinematically innovative in its techniques, combining mime, dance, operatic set pieces, and animation. The film makes extensive (and pioneering) use of digital image manipulation (using the Paintbox system), often overlaying multiple moving and still pictures with animations. Michael Nyman composed the musical score and Karine Saporta choreographed the dance. The film is also notable for its extensive use of nudity, displayed with a naturist ethos in keeping with the work's key themes. (i.e. The nude actors and extras represent a realistic cross-section of male and female humanity.)

Plot

The daughter of Prospero, an exiled magician, falls in love with the son of his enemy, while the sorcerer's sprite, Ariel, convinces him to abandon revenge against the traitors from his earlier life. In the film, Prospero stands in for Shakespeare, and is seen writing and speaking the story's action as it unfolds. "Prospero's Books" is a complex tale based upon William Shakespeare's "The Tempest."

Ariel is played by three actors — a boy, an adolescent, and a youth. Each represents a classical elemental. The boy represents water, and is shown perpetually urinating. Conservative movie critic Michael Medved attacked the scene of Ariel urinating from a swing in "The Urge to Offend" chapter of his book "Hollywood vs. America".

Production and financing

John Gielgud said a film of "The Tempest" (as Prospero, as he had been in four stage productions in 1931, 1940, 1957, and 1974) was his life's amibition. He had approached Alain Resnais, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and Orson Welles about directing him in it, Benjamin Britten to compose its score, and Albert Finney to be Caliban, before Greenaway agreed. The closest the earlier attempts came to being made was in 1967, with Welles as both director and as Caliban to Gielgud's Prospero, but after the commercial failure of Welles and Gielgud's Shakespearean film collaboration, "Chimes at Midnight," financing for a cinematic "The Tempest" collapsed. ["Sir John Gielgud: A Life in Letters", Arcade Publishing (2004)]

Soundtrack

Infobox Album
Name = Prospero's Books
Type = soundtrack
Longtype =
Artist = Michael Nyman


Cover size = 200
Caption = Photos by Marc Guillaumont
Design: Creative Partnership
Released = November 12, 1991
Recorded = PRT Studios and Abbey Road Studios, London
Genre = Soundtrack, Contemporary classical, art song, Minimalist music
Length = 54:58
Language = English
Label = London
Argo
Director =
Producer = David Cunningham
Reviews = Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:djfuxqtgldte]
Compiler =
Chronology =
Last album = String Quartets 1-3
1991
This album = Prospero's Books
1991
Next album = The Michael Nyman Songbook
1992
Misc = Director Peter Greenaway and composer Michael Nyman acrimoniously ended their longstanding work relationship while making "Prospero's Books". Most of the film's music cues, (excepting Ariel's songs and the Masque) are from an earlier concert, "La Traversée de Paris" and the score from "A Zed & Two Noughts". The soundtrack album is Nyman's sixteenth release.

Track listing

#Full fathom five* 1.58
#Prospero's curse 2.38
#While you here do snoring lie* 1.06
#Prospero's Magic 5.11
#Miranda 3.54
#Twelve years since 2.45
#Come unto these yellow sands* 3.44
#History of Sycorax 3.25
#Come and go* 1.16
#Cornfield 6.26
#Where the bee sucks* 4.48
#Caliban's pit 2.56
#Reconciliation 2.31
#THE MASQUE+ 12.12

Personnel

**Sarah Leonard, Ariel
*+Marie Angel, Iris
*+Ute Lemper, Ceres
*+Deborah Conway, Juno

Michael Nyman Band:
*Alexander Balanescu, violin
*Jonathan Carney, violin, viola
*Elisabeth Perry, violin
*Clare Connors, violin
*Kate Musker, viola
*Tony Hinnigan, cello
*Justin Pearson, cello
*Paul Morgan, double bass
*Tim Amhurst, double bass
*Lynda Houghton, double bass
*Martin Elliott, bass guitar
*David Rix, clarinet, bass clarinet
*John Harle, soprano & alto saxophone
*David Roach, ssoprano & alto axophone
*Jamie Talbot, soprano & alto saxophone
*Andrew Findon, tenor & baritone saxophone, piccolo, flute
*Graham Ashton, trumpet
*Richard Clews, horn
*Marjorie Dunn, horn
*Nigel Barr, bass trombone
*Steve Saunders, bass trombone
*Michael Nyman, piano & musiical direction

*Produced by David Cunningham
*Engineer: Michael J. Dutton
*Assistant engineer: Dillon Gallagher (PRT), Chris Brown (Abbey Road)
*Mixed by Michael J. Dutton, Michael Nymam, and David Cunningham at PRT Studios and Abbey Road Studios
*Edited at Abbey Road Studios by Peter Mew
*Art Direction: Ann Bradbeer
*Photography: Marc Guillamot
*Design: Creative Partnership

*Artist representative: Don Mousseau

Details

* Italian Title: L'ultima tempesta
* runtime: 124 min

References

External links

*imdb title | id=0102722| title= Prospero's Books