Prospero's Books (1991)

67% of critics liked it
(24 reviews)
84% of users liked it
(3,832 ratings)

Puzzle-master Peter Greenaway exposes another aspect of his peculiar obsessions to the filmgoing public. Prospero's Books uses Shakespeare as a foundation and then skips along to define its own lush territory. The books of the title are briefly referenced in The Tempest -- Prospero is a magician who… More Puzzle-master Peter Greenaway exposes another aspect of his peculiar obsessions to the filmgoing public. Prospero's Books uses Shakespeare as a foundation and then skips along to define its own lush territory. The books of the title are briefly referenced in The Tempest -- Prospero is a magician who gets to keep only a small fragment of his enormous library when he is exiled with his daughter to an enchanted island. In the film, Prospero is played by Sir John Gielgud. Indeed, everybody is voiced by Gielgud as he describes the events that unfold. But mostly, he describes the books, and as he does, the screen fills with florid calligraphies, astonishing diagrams, extravagant paintings, and lots and lots of naked people. ~ John Voorhees, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 2 hr. 9 min.
Directed By: Peter Greenaway
Written By: William Shakespeare, Peter Greenaway
Genres: Drama, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Special Interest

In Theaters: Sep 28, 1991 Wide
On DVD: Oct 22, 1992

Critic Reviews

Variety Staff, Variety
The product of a feverish, overflowing imagination, this almost impossibly dense take on The Tempest displays both the director's audacious brilliance and lewd extravagance at full tilt.
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
Gone is any sense of drama or character; the cluttered spectacle yields no overriding design but simply disconnected MTV-like conceits or mini-ideas every three seconds.
Vincent Canby, New York Times
Greenaway is not a frivolous film maker. He doesn't shoot a lot of material with the expectation of stumbling upon a found object within. His films are planned from the first frame to the last.
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
Greenaway bombards you with images, with no regard for the average attention span. Is he a genius or a fake? Debating that question is almost as stimulating as watching a Greenaway film.
Hal Hinson, Washington Post
Prospero's Books references the masterpieces of the past in a manner that antagonizes our pleasure in the arts rather than enhancing it.
Joe Brown, Washington Post
Ravishing but incomprehensible.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Does it work? That depends on whether you find Greenaway's elaborate visual conceits and rarified narrative structures daring and liberating, or boringly self-indulgent.
, Film4
Lubricious biblophilia rubbing up against a warehouse of naked extras, this Shakespearean adaptation is, in many ways, the epitome of cinematic pretension.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It cries out to not only be heard but be seen for what it wishes to convey about the act of creativity.
Geoff Andrew, Time Out
To some degree, the relentless proliferation of ideas smothers the dramatic highs and lows, but this is a minor quibble compared to the sheer ambition and audacity of the overall conception.
Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
Gielgud's voice has the ability to put you right to sleep with its bass and monotone timbre. The good news is that when you wake up, you won't have missed a thing.
Ken Hanke, Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
There's nothing quite like it in all of cinema -- and that's either a very good thing, or a very perplexing one, depending on how you feel about Greenaway's work.
Mark R. Leeper, rec.arts.movies.reviews
This is a fantasy film that does a great deal that is new but one I cannot recommend without strong reservations.
Ted Prigge, rec.arts.movies.reviews
It's not concerned with anything but being hypnotic and using film's plastic elements to its extremes, or at least as far as Greenaway can take it.