Dutch Poet Laureate to Appear in New Peter Greenaway Film

Peter Greenaway's new film, Goltzius and the Pelican Company, will feature Dutch Poet Laureate Ramsey Nasr.

Here's an interview from IndieWire. In it Greenaway talks about casting Nasr and language and, of course, more.

I wanted to ask you about the relationship between words and pictures in your films - you frequently use words almost as pictures.

Words as pictures, text as image -- it’s not really part any more of the European tradition. My film “The Pillow Book” -- that was my attempt to make a demonstration that there should be no separation and there isn't in Japanese culture. There, text is image and image is text.

I deplore the fact that we have a text-based cinema. Every film you've ever seen has started with the written word, “Lord of the Rings” and ‘Harry Potter’ are obvious examples but even down to your Almodovar, Spielberg, Eisenstein, all film begins with the written word. I think we ought to allow cinema to be its own medium and I want to prioritize the image, but I never want you to forget this dichotomy that's going on.

Ramsey Nasr, who plays Goltzius, is the Dutch Poet Laureate. How did that casting come about?

He is famous for his poetry both in Dutch and English, and I knew of him through that. I think he was intrigued, being a wordsmith himself, he was entertained by the literary nature of the project.

Full interview here.