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In 1931, following the success of the film Battleship Potemkin, Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein travels to the city of Guanajuato, Mexico, to shoot a new film. There he has a sensual experience that becomes a significant turning point in his life and career.
Greenaway's madcap style involves quick cuts, scenes changing from black and white to color, split-screen effects and eye-popping visuals that tend to overwhelm. The effect is initially giddy but it ultimately wears the viewer down.
To be sure, Greenaway's sensibilities may not be for everyone, but in the years to come, this is an artist whose work will be studied. It's a pleasure seeing him come out to play.
Eisenstein in Guanajuato certainly bursts out with a picaresque energy and voluminous scale that is as impressive as anything Greenaway has made in a long time.
Fans of Greenaway's work - a mix of the brainy, the controversial and the grotesque - won't necessarily be surprised by any of this. They may, however, be disappointed at how little of it actually works.
This interpretation may not be strictly factual, but it's a persuasive narrative and it brings out the strongest instincts in Greenaway, whose most popular movie remains "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover."