8 1/2 Women (2000)

FIRST (and hopefully final) FLOP....

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Dec 20, 2000

As a longtime devotee of Greenaway (who I regard as somewhat superhuman),I eagerly awauted seeing 8 1/2 WOMEN for over a year. I bought the screenlay from Vois Dis,but refrained from reading it until I'd seen the film,wanting to be surprised and the...n compare it to the source. When it finally started playing festivals,I was reading and hearing nothing but negative things-but this was no suprise,as the very reasons why most people can't tolerate Greenaway are the same reasons I adore him. I consider the PILLOW BOOK one of the finest films I've seen made in my lifetime,and am a huge fan of all his work-but I tried to keep expectations to a minimum to appreciate the film for what it was when the time came. I certainly wouldn't have expected this. Usually when a Greenaway film does less than stellar in the box office,its simply because genuinely innovative and intelligent films (let alone ones that are unapollogetic in heir artiness AND bypass the KKK's- excuse me,the MPAA's-ratings game)are usually taking one for the team. PROSPERO's BOOKS,THE BABY OF MACON and THE PILLOW BOOK are Greenaway at his peak thus far. His latest,however,is simply BAFFLING- and not in a wonderfully challenging,awe-inspiring way as usual. It's just UNMAGINIABLY AWFUL. Even the tradmark visuals are minmal (read:lackluster) by Greenaway standards. It's a painfully awkward,unfunny and inept 'comedy' that marks Greenaway's first (and hopefully final) JUSTIFIED flop. It happens to the best of us,and lets hope this is just a misstep for PG.He seems to be in a bad place. The result is a bitter,misogynistic and unrewarding labor about a widower who finds inspiration in Fellini's great film 81/2-and then filters whatever joy he finds there through his life,with which he is very frustrated as art and life fail to match up-and out of spite he seems to take out his anger on the object of his affection,and we feel both the character -and perhaps Greenaway himself-finding himself unhappy and disenchanted by the artform which once gave him reason to live. It seems almost as though Greenaway fell out of love with the material during production. Perhaps,since the establishing and decnstruction of artifices meant to sort out this life is perhaps the artist's most promnent recurring theme, this is actually a beuatifully realized film. HOWEVER....don't I usually LOVE it when he frusrates me? Have I gotten sick of Greenaway,or has Greenaway just goten sick of film? Hopefully neither,and this will simply be looked back on as one of his less impressve films. OR,perhaps time will tell-and I'll reevaluate this film as a great achievement that ranks with his finest work....it's just that right I now I simply don't see that happening. My friend and I-two hardcore fans-spoke daily for the week following our screening...each of us stunned by how BAD the film was. Words like exquisite,elegant and superlative were suddenly replaced with.....painfull.stinky.
warnings to run away at the sight of the title. Somebody out there,please prove me wrong. I'd like to come around on this-but I just didn't like it-and can't recommend it to ANYONE.Even Greenaway fans might want to steer clear.Sorry Read more Less