Drowning by Numbers (1988)

In perhaps one of the most meticulous and complex films ever made, director Peter Greenaway displays a perfectionist's eye in this story of three women, all named Cissie Colpitts, who compromise Madgett, their coroner friend, by drowning their husbands. Along the way, we are treated to the repeated use of systems and codes, highly original and impossible games, calcualtions and measurements, all set amongst the breathtaking cinematography of Sasha Vierny that instantly evokes the paintings of Vermeer in their rich colour and composition, and the striking music of Michael Nyman, both uplifting and unsettling.

Like his contemporary, Derek Jarman, Greenaway has made a living from making films that no-one else possibly could. The combination of high art with science and systems is immediately distinctive, and the original vision he has is always perfectly realised in an intriguing mix of genres (usually involving some element of crime or thriller) and a unique visual style. Here that style extends from mise en scene to set design and costume, giving the impression of a reality only just removed from ours.

Whilst the women, a mother and two daughters all aged far apart, represent sexuality and cunning, Madgett and his child assistant Smut are symbolic of order and practicality, no matter how complicated. A third party of investigative friends and relatives, suspicious of the recent deaths, stands as a threat to the games played between the women and Madgett, as they use his sexual weaknesses to their advantage, and the film builds through repetition to an explosive climax - marked by the appearance of the numbers 1 - 100, often accompanying a corpse, as it is Smut's tradition to mark a death with fireworks and a painted number. It has long been a cineaste's test to identify each number and this further represents a game that Greenaway is playing, this time with the audience. As the games grow more complicated we approach the disastrous and deadly climax, which, like everything else in the film, goes beyond our expectations.

Words can't really do justice to such a visual film, and such a visual director. For me, Peter Greenaway is criminally ignored in this country, even by critics who prefer the deceased Jarman. Finding it increasingly difficult to find distribution for his work, Greenaway is becoming ever more experimental and challenging, and isolated from the mainstream, but a visit to his early work (even the short films he made for years before his first feature) is extremely worthwhile, especially as his systems are interweaved from film to film and the best way to appreciate his work is as a whole. 'Drowning by Numbers' was the first of his films I saw and it has always retained a special place in my heart, but I also recommend 'A Zed and Two Noughts', 'A Cook, A Thief, His Wife and Her Lover' and 'The Draughtman's Contract', as well as the shorts 'Dear Phone' and 'A Walk Through H' - each one incredibly distinctive but unmistakably the work of a cinematic genius.