Peter Greenaway’s latest film is a bold departure
into fascination with sexual frivolity leading to obsession. Really,
this is a tale of a sexual freedom explored by father and son against
the backdrop of mixing Japanese and Western cultures. For the actors,
the film must have been a welcome and refreshing challenge in character
exploration. We especially note the edgy performance of Toni Collette
(Sixth Sense) in the role of Griselda.
The story opens in Japan where Philip Emmenthal and
his son Storey are buying a chain of pachinko parlors where Japanese
obsessively gamble on machines that resemble a noisy combination of
slots and pinball. Storey remains in Japan to run the business, but the
news of his mother’s death takes him back to Switzerland where he
comforts his grieving father. As the two men bond with incestuous
overtones, the father confesses some of the disappointments of his
erotic life. Storey urges him to live it up while he still can, so the
two fill the old man’s mansion with 8˝ women (the half refers to the
legless woman in a wheelchair) and embark on a journey of sexual
indulgence.
The quirky women represent a menagerie of
modernized, almost new age archetypes, behaving in whatever crazy way
strikes their fancy. With all this activity, though, 8˝ Women is
a static film. Sure, we see a lot of nudity, including male genitalia,
but the longer the spectacle of the two rich guys living in a harem is
allowed to continue, the less we know about their deeper characters. A
lot of sex is going on, but no meaningful relationships. After a while,
the escapist indulgence of sexual fantasies leads to even more dire
loneliness and isolation. Ultimately, the women turn the tables of
power, but everyone resembles empty, veritable pinballs in a pachinko
parlor. They are ruled by numbing obsession rather than any real passion
or satisfaction.
The interior set design compliments the complexity
and inapproachability of the characters. This is a confused world of
disconnected people, and we really feel most comfortable outside, in the
immaculately groomed gardens of Philip’s estate. The light of day,
however, emphasizes the grotesqueness of this world, and it is outside
that some characters meet their end.
Bizarre and incomprehensible as it may be, 8˝
Women also strikes with some haunting truths expressed through the
character of Philip. This elderly man of fortune who has lived in a
devoted and passionless marriage finds the courage to discover and taste
the uncontrollable lust, passion, and pleasure. For him, the 8˝ quests
in his house likely give him his first experience of the vast, weird,
and magical individualities of human beings. The more strange they are,
the more rejuvenated he feels because he is certain they are being
themselves and are not molding to the conventions of the culture
and times. Perhaps, those who live lives of repression and isolation can
only discover balance after indulging the opposite spectrum of
experience. Philip, after all, finds joy and peace and leaves us with a
taste of boldness to feel the most in every moment and with every
person.
If movies are the result of the directors’ sexual
fantasies, as was stated in 8˝ Women, then we wonder if Greenaway’s
endeavor is a posh private party which we are invited to observe, but
never really be a part of.
