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Tuna Retrospective

Many of you remember Tuna, who was the most prolific contributor of images, and the second-most prolific wordsmith during the first 15 years of the Fun House. For those who are not acquainted with him, it's high time you met. Although he passed away before the Blu-Ray age, his DVD captures and collages still hold up as some of the best work that has ever appeared on the internet. Enjoy!

Today: Amanda Plummer in 8 1/2 Women

Peter Greenaway is at the same time my favorite and least favorite filmmaker. His sense of visual artistry and his fascination with symmetry make his photographic composition incomparable. Just about every frame of his films could be captured and hung in a museum, and that leaves me impressed, even envious. On the other hand, his talent fights a never ending war with his many obsessions and his pretentiousness. When his talent wins, his films represent a unique experience. They leave you feeling that you have encountered great art. When his obsessions win, he's just weird and, to be honest, boring.

Of course, two of the things he obsesses about are nudity and sexuality, so he has created some of the most stunning nude scenes in film history, and has managed to get some great and distinguished beauties to show absolutely everything to his camera, often in very weird scenes. Some that come to mind are Julia Ormond (The Baby of Macon); Joely Richardson (Drowning By Numbers); Helen Mirren (The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover); and my all-time celebrity crush, Caroline Dhavernas (The Tulsa Luper Suitcases).

I will be going through Tuna's tributes to Greenaway, starting with this bizarre film. Greenaway probably didn't need much persuasion to get Amanda to do weird nude scenes. That's kind of her thing.