Critical Essay | Critical Review by Kevin Thomas

Critical Review by Kevin Thomas

SOURCE: Thomas, Kevin. “Rich Characters, Absurdist Humor in 8[frac12] Women.” Los Angeles Times (26 May 2000): F14.

In the following positive review, Thomas praises 8[frac12 Women, noting that it is “one of Greenaway's most amusing and accessible” films to date.]

Peter Greenaway's 8[frac12] Women is a nod to Fellini—and that “half” turns out to be a typically dark Greenaway twist. No artistic temperaments could be more different than those of Greenaway and Fellini. Greenaway is the detached, pitiless intellectual whose magistral experimental flourishes can be recondite in the extreme, whereas Fellini is the lyrical, compassionate sensualist who celebrates the beauty of the women in his all-encompassing embrace.

Even the most stunning woman will have her pores revealed in close-up by Greenaway, for whom lust seems invariably dry as dust. (You have to wonder what Greenaway and fellow Brit, painter Lucian Freud, with their common preoccupation with less than perfect flesh,...
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