Peter Greenaway

Biography

Peter Greenaway, CBE (born 5 April 1942) is a Welsh writer-director, painter, and video artist based in Amsterdam. Throughout the late 1960s and '70s, he produced several experimental documentary/mockumentary shorts while working as a film editor for the Central Office of Information. This early period culminated in "The Falls" (1980), a three-hour mockumentary indexing the strange effects of the VUE (the Violent Unknown Event) on 92 people whose names begin with the letters F-A-L-L. He made his dramatic feature film debut with "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982), and throughout the 1980s directed a string of critically acclaimed and frequently controversial films: "A Zed & Two Noughts" (1985), "The Belly of an Architect" (1987), "Drowning by Numbers" (1988), and his best-known work, the vicious Thatcher-era satire "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover" (1989). In the 1990s, he directed the Shakespeare adaptation "Prospero's Books" (1991), controversial religious satire "The Baby of Mâcon" (1993), erotic drama "The Pillow Book" (1996), and "8½ Women" (1999), an homage to the films of Federico Fellini, a major influence on Greenaway. In the early 2000s, Greenaway embarked on th…

Directed

1. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) — Director
2. The Draughtsman's Contract (1982) — Director
3. Drowning by Numbers (1988) — Director
4. The Pillow Book (1995) — Director
5. A Zed & Two Noughts (1985) — Director
6. The Belly of an Architect (1987) — Director
7. The Baby of Mâcon (1993) — Director
8. Prospero's Books (1991) — Director
9. Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015) — Director
10. Nightwatching (2007) — Director
11. Lumière & Company (1995) — Director
12. 8 ½ Women (1999) — Director
13. Goltzius & the Pelican Company (2012) — Director
14. The Falls (1982) — Director
15. Windows (1974) — Director
16. The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story (2003) — Director
17. Dear Phone (1976) — Director
18. H Is for House (1973) — Director
19. Rembrandt's J'Accuse...! (2008) — Director
20. Visions of Europe (2004) — Director
21. Vertical Features Remake (1978) — Director
22. Intervals (1973) — Director
23. A Walk Through H (1978) — Director
24. The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 3: From Sark to the Finish (2005) — Director
25. Inside Rooms: 26 Bathrooms, London & Oxfordshire (1985) — Director
26. Water Wrackets (1978) — Director
27. The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea (2004) — Director
28. Death in the Seine (1989) — Director
29. Act of God (1980) — Director
30. Making a Splash (1984) — Director
31. 3x3D (2013) — Director
32. The Sea in Their Blood (1983) — Director
33. Four American Composers: Philip Glass (1983) — Director
34. Train (1966) — Director
35. A TV Dante (1990) — Director
36. Hubert Bals Handshake (1989) — Director
37. M Is for Man, Music and Mozart (1991) — Director
38. Cinema16: British Short Films (2003) — Director
39. A Life in Suitcases: A History of Tulse Luper (2005) — Director
40. Terence Conran (1981) — Director

Also appeared in

1. 8 ½ Women (1999) — (uncredited)
2. The Falls (1982) — Interviewer
3. Windows (1974) — Narrator
4. H Is for House (1973) — (voice)
5. Dear Phone (1976) — Narrator
6. Rembrandt's J'Accuse...! (2008) — Himself / Public Prosecutor
7. Tintoretto: A Rebel in Venice (2019) — Self
8. The Greenaway Alphabet (2018) — Peter Greenaway
9. Cinema16: British Short Films (2003) — Self - Commentary, Dear Phone (voice)
10. Hubert Bals Handshake (1989) — Narrator
11. The Death of a Composer: Rosa, a Horse Drama (1999) — Narrator
12. The Curious World of Hieronymus Bosch (2016)
13. Fear of Drowning (1989) — Himself
14. The Wedding at Cana (2009) — Some characters (uncredited)
15. Close to Greenaway (2004) — Self
16. Kulturplatz (2004) — Self
17. Peter Greenaway: A Documentary (1992) — Himself
18. Peter Greenaway: The Film Architect - Beyond The Belly of an Architect (2023) — Himself
19. The Missing Nail (2019) — (voice)
20. The 92 Faces of Peter Greenaway (2002) — Himself
21. Ritratti di cinema (2025) — Self