Wedding Scene - Prospero's Books
Peter Greenaway's sensual hallucinatory version of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" was a technical and structural breakthrough film of the early 1990s. Combining animation, pantomime, dance and operatic music along with unique nested images it was also among the first features to use high definition video, Greenaway's premise is that, after being banished from his dukedom, Prospero brings his books to the island and it is the books that allow the magic to flourish. There is also the suggestion that Prospero is a stand-in for Shakespeare himself and is writing the play as it proceeds. The film contains some of Michael Nyman's most inspired music. John Gielgud considered his performance in this film a crowning achievement of a lifetime of work in stage and cinema.
So why is it not yet on DVD? It should be screened and studied in film schools. The excerpt presented here is from an old VHS tape and is far degraded from the detail of the original theatrical print. Also the original is in widescreen. So, please, after all these years, let's have this amazing film available in high definition.