SOURCE: Romney, Jonathan. Review of Prospero's Books, by Peter Greenaway. Sight and Sound 1, no. 5 (September 1991): 44–45.

In the following review, prefaced by a plot summary, Romney comments on Greenaway's use of new film techniques in Prospero's Books and examines how the film merges images with theme.

The early seventeenth century. On a secluded island, Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, sits in his palace surrounded by a retinue of magical spirits, and begins to improvise the text of Shakespeare's The Tempest. As he speaks the lines, the action unfolds. … A storm blows up at sea, threatening the boat carrying Alonso, King of Naples, the king's brother Sebastian and son Ferdinand, an old courtier, Gonzalo, and Prospero's brother Antonio, who has usurped his dukedom.

As his daughter Miranda sleeps, Prospero tells her of their past: of his late wife Susannah; of how, in order to concentrate on his studies, he...