Peter Greenaway to visit Poznań!

Without Peter Greenaway, cinema might not look the way it does today — from Wes Anderson’s symmetrical compositions to Lech Majewski’s baroque excess and David Cronenberg’s naturalistic fascination with the human body. In Greenaway’s films, every frame stands on its own like a painting. For decades, he has been developing a visual language entirely his own. His work resists easy categorisation: meticulously constructed yet sensual, intellectual yet provocative, filled with symbolism, mathematical patterns and grotesque humour.

Trained as a painter, Greenaway has always approached cinema not simply as a way of telling stories, but as a space for images, composition and experimentation. It was THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT (1982) that brought him international recognition, while his subsequent films established him as one of the leading figures in European art-house cinema. His work extends far beyond the screen: Greenaway also creates multimedia installations, exhibits visual art and explores forms that bring film, art and music together.

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In his films, love, revenge, greed and murder are served in lavish portions, with a bitter aftertaste. The images seduce with their immaculate composition while challenging the audience’s expectations, playing with genre conventions and the boundaries of good taste. This is cinema best savoured on the big screen — especially when every scene feels like a carefully composed painting.

The British Film Festival retrospective offers a chance to explore the many facets of Greenaway’s work. In THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT (1982), he takes us to late seventeenth-century England. A commission to produce twelve drawings of a country estate gradually reveals unsettling details, turning an elegant period drama into a murder mystery. DROWNING BY NUMBERS (1988) follows three women and the three husbands they need to get rid of. It is also a cinematic experiment in which mathematical patterns meet black humour and reflections on mortality.

In The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), an exclusive restaurant becomes the stage for a story of power, violence, desire and revenge. THE PILLOW BOOK takes us into a world of bodies, calligraphy and literature, following a young Japanese woman in search of a lover capable of fulfilling her fantasies. A ZED & TWO NOUGHTS (1985) begins with a tragic accident that draws two zoologists into an obsession with decay and symmetry. The programme is rounded off by The BABY OF MACON (1993), a disturbing, subversive tale of miracles, religion and faith turned into a commodity.

Peter Greenaway’s visit is a rare opportunity to meet a filmmaker whose work does not end when the credits roll. He will take part in Q&A sessions with audiences after selected screenings, offering a chance to explore his cinema through the eyes of an artist who has spent decades pushing the boundaries between film and the visual arts. Details of the meetings will be announced soon.