The bedtime reading
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The bedtime reading |
| Original title | The Pillow Book |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1996 |
| length | 126 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Peter Greenaway |
| script | Peter Greenaway |
| production | Kees Kasander |
| music | Joe Delia |
| camera | Sacha Vierny |
| cut | Peter Greenaway, Chris Wyatt |
| occupation | |
| |
The Pillow Book is a film director Peter Greenaway from the year 1996 with Vivian Wu and Ewan McGregor in the lead roles. The film is based on the pillow book by Sei Shonagon .
action
Nagiko is the daughter of a calligrapher . When she was six years old, the father made an agreement with his publisher to marry Nagiko to a then ten year old. A few years later the wedding takes place, but the husband turns out to be a despiser of literature and calligraphy. Nagiko leaves him and moves to Hong Kong .
The idea of writing her own pillow book matures more and more : a collection of poetic sentences about mostly everyday scenes. However, a book written by her is harshly rejected by the same publisher who had negotiated with her father at the time. In this way Nagiko establishes contact with the young translator Jerome, who, in addition to his translation services, also physically hires out the publisher. After initial difficulties in the relationship with Jerome, who falls in love with Nagiko, Nagiko "describes" Jerome's body with calligraphic characters and sends it to the publisher. He accepts the "book" and requests twelve more.
But when Nagiko catches Jerome all too passionate with the publisher, she feels betrayed by him, especially with the man she hates most because of the marriage deal. She ignores him from now on. In his desperation, Jerome can be persuaded to swallow pills in order to simulate a death based on Romeo and Juliet . But he actually dies in the process. The publisher has the corpse excavated and skinned. He has the skin written on with calligraphic characters into a book. When Nagiko finds out, she makes a deal with the publisher. She sends him more human "books". The thirteenth book, the "Book of Death," leads to the death of the publisher. Nagiko receives the book made from Jerome's skin.
criticism
"A stimulating, aesthetically sophisticated intellectual flight, which, however, in its predictable intellectual mystery always harbors a tendency to monotony."
literature
- Andreas Blödorn: Transformation and archiving of images in film: Medial differential and intermedial narration in Peter Greenaway's THE PILLOW BOOK . In: Corinna Müller / Irina Scheidgen (eds.): Medial order. Storytelling, archiving, describing . Marburg 2007, pp. 107-127.
- Christian Begemann: The writing of the body and the body of writing. Anthropology and Semiotics in Peter Greenaway's The Pillow Book. In: Christian Begemann, David E. Wellbery (eds.): Art - Generation - Birth. Theories and Metaphors of Aesthetic Production in the Modern Age, Freiburg 2002, pp. 381-420.