The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1: The Moab Story

Tulse Luper, a writer and projector of schemes, is imprisoned in various places around the world across the twentieth century. This first part takes place in 1928 at a uranium mine in Moab, Utah. The ninety-two suitcases he leaves behind are the film's catalogue. It is not interested in a life story. It is interested in counting: ninety-two is the atomic number of uranium, and Peter Greenaway builds the entire project on that figure. Each suitcase is a section, each section a list. The form splits the screen: images layered on images, frames within frames, text, archive, and compositions arranged like a stage. The narrative is not linear but exhibitional. The project was not confined to cinema. Greenaway designed it as a multi-part structure of three films, exhibitions, a website and DVDs; the idea that a cinema screen alone is no longer enough was his standing argument in this period. JJ Feild plays Tulse Luper, with Ornella Muti and Raymond J. Barry in the cast. Who it is for: viewers who like Greenaway's formal systems and experimental narrative. Who it is not for: anyone who wants a story to follow. The film does not try to build a bond with its character and stands as an incomplete piece on its own.