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Prospero's Books From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Prospero's Books is a 1991 British fantasy drama film, written and directed by Peter Greenaway, is a cinematic Prospero's Books adaptation of The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. John Gielgud is Prospero, the protagonist who provides the offscreen narration and the voices to the other story characters. Stylistically, Prospero's Books is narratively and cinematically innovative in its techniques, combining mime, dance, opera, and animation. Edited in Japan, the film makes extensive (and pioneering) use of digital image manipulation (using HiVision video inserts and the Paintbox system), often overlaying multiple moving and still pictures with animations. Michael Nyman composed the musical score and Karine Saporta choreographed the dance. The film is also notable for its extensive use of nudity, reminiscent of Renaissance paintings of mythological characters. The nude actors and extras represent a crosssection of male and female humanity. Theatrical poster. Contents Directed by Peter Greenaway Produced by Masato Hara 1 Plot Kees Kasander 2 The Books Katsufumi Nakamura 3 Cast Yoshinobu Namano 4 Production and financing Denis Wigman 5 Soundtrack Roland Wigman 5.1 Track listing 5.2 Performers Written by Peter Greenaway 5.3 Michael Nyman Band Starring John Gielgud 5.4 Technical Michael Clark 6 References Michel Blanc 7 External links Erland Josephson Isabelle Pasco Mark Rylance Plot Music by Michael Nyman Cinematography Sacha Vierny The daughter of Prospero, an exiled magician, falls in Edited by Marina Rodbyl love with the son of his enemy, while the sorcerer's sprite, Ariel, convinces him to abandon revenge against Release dates 30 August 1991 the traitors from his earlier life. In the film, Prospero (United Kingdom) stands in for Shakespeare, and is seen writing and 15 November 1991 (United States; limited) speaking the story's action as it unfolds. Prospero's 6 December 1991 Books is a complex tale based upon William (Australia) Shakespeare's The Tempest. Running time 129 minutes Ariel is played by four actors — three acrobats: a boy, Country United Kingdom an adolescent, and a youth, and a boy singer. Each Language English represents a classical elemental. The boy represents Budget £1,500,000 water, and is often shown endlessly urinating. Box office $1,750,301 The Books The books of Prospero number 24 according to the production design which outlines each volume's content. The list is reminiscent of the lost books of Epicurus. [1] 1 A Book of Water 2 A Book of Mirrors 3 A Book of Mythologies 4 A Primer of the Small Stars 5 An Atlas Belonging to Orpheus 6 A Harsh Book of Geometry 7 The Book of Colours 8 The Vesalius Anatomy of Birth 9 An Alphabetical Inventory of the Dead 10 A Book of Travellers' Tales 11 The Book of the Earth 12 A Book of Architecture and Other Music 13 The NinetyTwo Conceits of the Minotaur 14 The Book of Languages 15 Endplants 16 A Book of Love 17 A Bestiary of Past, Present and Future Animals 18 The Book of Utopias 19 The Book of Universal Cosmography 20 Lore of Ruins 21 The Autobiographies of Pasiphae and Semiramis 22 A Book of Motion 23 The Book of Games 24 ThirtySix Plays Cast John Gielgud as Prospero Michael Clark as Caliban Michel Blanc as Alonso Erland Josephson as Gonzalo Isabelle Pasco as Miranda Tom Bell as Antonio Kenneth Cranham as Sebastian Mark Rylance as Ferdinand Gerard Thoolen as Adrian Pierre Bokma as Francisco Jim van der Woude as Trinculo Michiel Romeyn as Stephano Paul Russell as Ariel James Thiérrée as Ariel Production and financing John Gielgud said a film of The Tempest (as Prospero, as he had been in four stage productions in 1931, 1940, 1957, and 1974) was his life's ambition. He had approached Alain Resnais, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and Orson Welles about directing him in it, Benjamin Britten to compose its score, and Albert Finney to be Caliban, before Greenaway agreed. The closest the earlier attempts came to being made was in 1967, with Welles as both director and as Caliban to Gielgud's Prospero, but after the commercial failure of Welles and Gielgud's Shakespearean film collaboration, Chimes at Midnight, financing for a cinematic The Tempest collapsed.[2] The film was screened out of competition at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.[3] Soundtrack This was the last of the collaborations between director Peter Greenaway and composer Michael Nyman. Most of the film's music cues, (excepting Ariel's songs and the Masque) are from an earlier concert, La Traversée de Paris and the score from A Zed & Two Noughts. The soundtrack album is Nyman's sixteenth release. Track listing 1. Full fathom five 1.58 6. Twelve years since 2.45 11.Where the bee 2. Prospero's curse 2.38 7. Come unto these yellow sucks* 4.48 3. While you here do snoring sands* 3.44 12.Caliban's pit 2.56 lie* 1.06 8. History of Sycorax 3.25 13.Reconciliation 2.31 4. Prospero's Magic 5.11 9. Come and go* 1.16 14.THE MASQUE+ 5. Miranda 3.54 10.Cornfield 6.26 12.12 Performers Sarah Leonard, Marie Angel, Ute Lemper, Deborah Conway, Ariel* Iris+ Ceres+ Juno+ Michael Nyman Band Alexander Paul Morgan, double bass Jamie Talbot, soprano & alto saxophone Balanescu, violin Tim Amhurst, double bass Andrew Findon, tenor & baritone Jonathan Carney, Lynda Houghton, double saxophone, piccolo, flute violin, viola bass Graham Ashton, trumpet Elisabeth Perry, Martin Elliott, bass guitar Richard Clews, horn violin David Rix, clarinet, bass Marjorie Dunn, horn Clare Connors, clarinet Nigel Barr, bass trombone violin John Harle, soprano & alto Steve Saunders, bass trombone Kate Musker, viola saxophone Michael Nyman, piano & musical Tony Hinnigan, David Roach, soprano & direction cello alto axophone Justin Pearson, cello Technical Prospero's Books Produced by David Cunningham Engineer: Michael J. Dutton Assistant engineer: Dillon Gallagher (PRT), Chris Brown (Abbey Road Studios) Mixed by Michael J. Dutton, Michael Nyman, and David Cunningham at PRT Studios and Abbey Road Studios Edited at Abbey Road Studios by Peter Mew Art Direction: Ann Bradbeer Photography: Marc Guillamot Design: Creative Partnership Artist representative: Don Mousseau Photos by Marc Guillaumont Design: Creative Partnership References Soundtrack album by Michael Nyman 1. Prospero's Books: A Film of the Shakespeare's The Released November 12, 1991 Tempest, Peter Greenaway, Four Walls Eight Windows Recorded PRT Studios and Abbey Road Studios, (October 1991) London 2. Sir John Gielgud: A Life in Letters, Arcade Publishing (2004) Genre Soundtrack, Contemporary classical, art 3. "Festival de Cannes: Prospero's Books" song, Minimalist music (http://www.festival cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/95/year/1991.html). Length 54:58 festivalcannes.com. Retrieved 20090812. Language English Label London External links Argo Prospero's Books Producer David Cunningham (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102722/) at the Michael Nyman chronology Internet Movie Database Prospero's Books String Quartets Prospero's The Michael (http://www.allmovie.com/movie/v39521) at 13 Books Nyman AllMovie 1991 1991 Songbook 1992 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=Prospero%27s_Books&oldid=678678245" Professional ratings Review scores Categories: 1991 films Englishlanguage films 1990s drama films 1990s fantasy films British films Source Rating link British drama films British fantasy films Allmusic Films directed by Peter Greenaway (http://www.allmusic.com/album/r196971) Films based on The Tempest 1991 soundtracks Film soundtracks French films French drama films French fantasy films Films set on islands Magic realism films This page was last modified on 30 August 2015, at 23:09. 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