Eight and Half Women (1999) Peter Greenaway

Peter Greenaway

England, 1999



After his wife dies, 55-year-old businessman Philip Emmenthal, at the prompting of his playboy son Storey, populates his Geneva villa with eight and a half concubines. Three are from Kyoto, where Storey manages Pachinco palaces. Each has a distinctive personality: a nun, a child bearer, a gambler, a student of Kabuki, a horsewoman with a pet pig, a maid. Philip throws off his strait-laced and repressed attitudes, immersing himself in pleasure. After about a year, the women begin to assert their own power. Side adventures pre-figure the household's breakup, and the women depart in one way or another, one at at time. Philip's fate is in the hands of Palmira, his favorite.



John Standing (Philip Emmenthal)

Matthew Delamere (Storey Emmenthal)

Vivian Wu (Kito)

Annie Shizuka Inoh (Simato)

Barbara Sarafian (Clothilde)

Kirina Mano (Mio)

Toni Collette (Griselda)

Amanda Plummer (Beryl)

Natacha Amal (Giaconda)

Manna Fujiwara (Giuletta)

Polly Walker (Palmira)

Elizabeth Berrington (Celeste)

Myriam Muller (Marianne)

Don Warrington (Simon)