BFI

In Peter Greenaway's first film for the BFI Production Board, A Walk Through H (1978), the director indulged his fascination with extremely small self-made maps, juxtaposing these with shots of birds, primarily in or around water. In his second, Vertical Features Remake, the concentration is on shots of the vertical image as it appears in nature and the way these features can be analysed, dissected and plotted on plans and diagrams.

Fascinated by land art, Greenaway aimed to identify a fundamental motif, which here becomes the vertical in the landscape - for instance a tree or a post - which breaks the predictability of the horizon. The images of verticals and horizons yield notions of the grid and the frame surrounding the picture, drawing attention to the artificiality of the concept.

The organisation or structure of the film is simply frame counts. These are footnoted with intertextual films, explaining the structures being considered. Surrounding these abstract films is a mocking academic analysis of what is trying to be accomplished. The academics and scholars presented here become the key players in many of Greenaway's later stories. Tulse Luper, Greenaway's alter-ego introduced in A Walk Through H, is again the key figure, supported by new characters including Cissie Colpitts, Van Hoyten and Gang Lion.

Laurel Warbrick-Keay

*This film is included in the BFI DVD compilation 'The Early Films of Peter Greenaway Volume 2'.

Click titles to see or read more