Balesetek krónikája

At least in the first hour, an almost brilliant mockery of all seemingly unquestionably valid claims of language on the objective construction of social life. Greenaway sets up a truly linguistic game in which the randomness of every linguistic system is perfectly demonstrated, in the sense that the meaning of things and therefore their naming is not given positively but is derived negatively by differentiation from all other names (from the word "table" itself, nothing is derived, but we gain the idea of a table by contrasting it with "chair," "wall," "child," "spaceship," etc...). The randomness of specific expressions is therefore obvious. The language we speak every day can be playfully disrupted, allowing the author to build a completely new system, which can form, for example, around a worldwide bird conspiracy, thanks to the aforementioned randomness/arbitrariness. Just as the stereotypical idea of language is shattered, so is our traditional expectation of film. It is a perfect work in this respect but it simply should have been shorter. (2014.04.29)

I would say that it is the most original film by Peter Greenaway, reminiscent of certain sketches from the Monty Python's Flying Circus group. For its inventiveness and playfulness, I give it four stars, although it is true that it is a kind of experiment lacking a story and is better to be watched in stages. Each of the mystifying portraits is filmed in a different style, essentially representing a kind of directorial styles school for the viewer. It is funny, wild, and original. Overall impression: 75%. (2009.05.31)