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The Pillow Book
1995 126 min France, United Kingdom, Netherlands NC-17 18+
★6.7
Drama, Romance
Director: Peter Greenaway
🎭 Based on
«The Pillow Book»
bySei Shōnagon
Trailers
EN
EN
Description
Nagito has a fetish for calligraphy on the human body and meets her ideal soulmate Jerome, an English translator sent to Japan. However, once Nagiko's father's gay publisher rejoins the scene, the story is overtaken by treachery and bloodlust.
US Gross:
$2.37M
Starring
Vivian Wu
Actor
Ewan McGregor
Actor
Yoshi Oida
Actor
Awards
5 wins & 4 nominations total
Key opinion
The Pillow Book is a highly stylized, visually immersive film that prioritizes aesthetic form and philosophical inquiry over traditional narrative momentum. While admirers praise its bold experimentation and artistic depth, detractors find its formal detachment and unconventional structure cold or inaccessible.
| Direction | Greenaway's formalist direction utilizes innovative techniques like poly-screen frames, nested imagery, and a structural layout mirroring a written book to create a unique visual experience. | |
| Cinematography | The cinematography is praised for its meticulous composition and striking use of color and light, which serve as the film's primary vehicle for storytelling. | |
| Score | The film’s score is frequently highlighted for its ability to complement the visual style and immerse the viewer in the film's atmospheric, cross-cultural aesthetic. | |
| Pacing | The narrative pacing is sharply divided: supporters value the meditative, slow-burn unfolding of the story, while critics find the film tedious, drawn-out, and lacking sufficient momentum. | |
| Acting | Performances are polarized; some viewers see the actors as effective vessels for Greenaway’s conceptual vision, while others find the characters and their portrayals emotionally hollow and distant. | |
| Originality | The use of nudity and body-as-canvas themes is seen by some as essential, artistic, and sensual, but dismissed by others as excessive, unnecessary, or uncomfortably fetishistic. |