As fully expected, Peter Greenaway’s latest endeavour, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, is a sexually charged, surreal and abstract feature film. Fans of the unique auteur, or simply those familiar with his work, will be nonplussed as to the unconventionality of the piece, and fully aware of what they’re getting themselves in for. Conversely, those who haven’t yet seen a Greenaway production, will be wondering just when they’re going to awake from this somewhat deranged daydream.
Ramsey Nasr plays Goltzius, a printmaker who hopes to convince the distinguished, if erratic, totalitarian The Margrave (F. Murray Abraham), who we’re introduced to when on the toilet, calmly peeling an apple. The aim is to convince him to part with some of his wealth, in exchange for live entertainment, performed by Goltzius’ elaborate troupe. However the several vignettes they display provoke much controversy and discussion, as they explore...
Ramsey Nasr plays Goltzius, a printmaker who hopes to convince the distinguished, if erratic, totalitarian The Margrave (F. Murray Abraham), who we’re introduced to when on the toilet, calmly peeling an apple. The aim is to convince him to part with some of his wealth, in exchange for live entertainment, performed by Goltzius’ elaborate troupe. However the several vignettes they display provoke much controversy and discussion, as they explore...
- 7/11/2014
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
★★★☆☆British auteur Peter Greenaway's latest oddity, the elaborately titled Goltzius and the Pelican Company (2012), states its intentions in its opening minutes. A man dressed in immaculate period costume, replete with imposing coiffured barnet and an almost absurd European accent introduces himself directly to camera. This is Hendrik Goltzius, a Dutch printmaker being played by Ramsey Nasr, a Dutch writer and actor who was a poet laureate as recently as 2013. "We traded in words. Words in books, words on the stage," he croons before warning that sooner or later we'll be getting into bed with lechery. The following will be lusty and dense, and is likely to exhilarate and infuriate in equal measure.
- 7/10/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Company You Keep: Greenaway’s Latest a Beguiling, Sumptuous Cinematic Film
One seems to forget that Peter Greenaway has been prophesying the death of cinema (for well over a decade now) after watching his visually sumptuous new film, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, which sees the auteur in top form, combining his arresting visionary panache with his signature taboo baiting subject matter in the realm of the high brow. The subject matter is a hard sell, and those unfamiliar or unaccustomed to Greenaway’s unclassifiable narratives (or lack thereof) will most likely be as baffled as ever, but fans of the director and/or offbeat, striking cinema will hopefully embrace one of the infrequent working Greenaway’s best films to date.
Hendrick Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr), a late 16th century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, takes his employees, known as the Pelican Company, to visit the Margrave of Alsace...
One seems to forget that Peter Greenaway has been prophesying the death of cinema (for well over a decade now) after watching his visually sumptuous new film, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, which sees the auteur in top form, combining his arresting visionary panache with his signature taboo baiting subject matter in the realm of the high brow. The subject matter is a hard sell, and those unfamiliar or unaccustomed to Greenaway’s unclassifiable narratives (or lack thereof) will most likely be as baffled as ever, but fans of the director and/or offbeat, striking cinema will hopefully embrace one of the infrequent working Greenaway’s best films to date.
Hendrick Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr), a late 16th century Dutch printer and engraver of erotic prints, takes his employees, known as the Pelican Company, to visit the Margrave of Alsace...
- 1/9/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
As his latest heady mix of art and sex premieres in Rome, Peter Greenaway says he'd actually rather be a painter – and plans to end it all in 10 years anyway
When Peter Greenaway's new film screens late at night at the Rome film festival it sheds nearly a third of its audience in the opening hour. On screen sits a lavish spread of nude bodies and looping calligraphy, while off-screen comes the quiet flap of seat-backs as maybe 30 punters bail out and run for cover. In the meantime I'm wondering about the punters that remain. How many are staying for the art and how many for the sex?
Or could it be that there's no real difference between the two? Goltzius and the Pelican Company spins a tale of eroticism and religious hypocrisy; an examination of the symbiotic relationship between art and sex. The hero is Hendrik Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr...
When Peter Greenaway's new film screens late at night at the Rome film festival it sheds nearly a third of its audience in the opening hour. On screen sits a lavish spread of nude bodies and looping calligraphy, while off-screen comes the quiet flap of seat-backs as maybe 30 punters bail out and run for cover. In the meantime I'm wondering about the punters that remain. How many are staying for the art and how many for the sex?
Or could it be that there's no real difference between the two? Goltzius and the Pelican Company spins a tale of eroticism and religious hypocrisy; an examination of the symbiotic relationship between art and sex. The hero is Hendrik Goltzius (Ramsey Nasr...
- 11/16/2012
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
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