Friday, September 28, 2012

Interesting Guy

Old article about Peter Greenaway.

At 67, Greenaway is no longer interested in cinema per se – it's a half-dead medium wasted by taking its cues from books, "telling bedtime stories for adults. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are illustrated books. Not cinema. I want to be a prime creator. As every self-regarding artist should do."
and this:
He is, he says, planning to take advantage of the freedom afforded and kill himself when he's 80. "My youngest daughter will be 21 so I can see her to full adulthood. Why would it be sad? I've got 14 years left. They say the most valuable thing about death is that you never know when it's going to happen. But I think this a curse. I think if we knew we'd make much better use of life." To some extent, this suicide plan is another example of his eagerness to be at the cutting edge – "I think very soon we're all going to have to seriously discuss compulsory euthanasia." But it's also nobler. He's an ideas man to the end, who's keen to put them into practice – and not just in film. He has a genuine sense of responsibility. "I've had a fantastic life and I'm still enjoying it and am an extremely happy man, but there has to be a trade-off somewhere. I'm a Darwinian. All I can think is that we're here to fuck, to procreate. And we're incredibly focused towards it. All our literature and television is pushing us towards it. But I passed on my genes a long time ago, so I have to justify my place in the human race some other way."
Never heard that before.

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