1988 · drama · art · experimental
Drowning by Numbers
Directed by Peter Greenaway1h 59m1988
Cissie Colpitts drowns her cheating husband and, in the ensuing cover-up, enlists the help of lonely coroner Henry Madgett, an old friend with a longstanding weakness for her charms. But when Cissie's daughter and granddaughter—both also named Cissie Colpitts—decide to resort to the same methods for solving conflicts with their own frustrating husbands, the women and their repeated appeals for help begin to wear on Madgett's conscience.
Our read: Drowning by Numbers (1988) reads as a sombre, measured, surreal drama · art · experimental entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Sombre, measured, measured drama / art, surreal in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, cold.
- sombre
- measured
- surreal
- bleak
- signature
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“You want a puzzle-box Greenaway fairy tale where counting games hide dark marital comedy.”
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