greenaway film pose a clever and erudite and innovative . yet his style and grammar originate and remind viewer of film make in the world war 1 era of film make represent the frame composition and use of mid shot and the static camera . it may be well to rub against mainstream movie with this style but it be not new . perhaps like that other innovator and t eliot and he draw more from the past than in look forward a an authentic innovator would or could . yet greenaway big failing be that he can not write . his dialog and even plot structure be mechanical and logical but without the vitality of another dramatic logician and brecht . where this weakness be most apparent be in his humor and which be poise and logical and so the joke be dead before it deliver . the result be tedium represent if it not funny and it have fail represent ask a stand up comedian to justify their act if the audience doesn not respond . perhaps the well read director could learn something from freud on humor . finally and like woody allen and greenaway have manipulate his actor over the year to work like clone . they speak the line with a bored and smug air like narcissistic adolescent . this film and despite it design and lighting and be meretricious .