Drowning by Numbers

Drowning by Numbers
Drowning by Numbers film poster
Directed by	Peter Greenaway
Produced by	Kees Kasander Denis Wigman
Written by	Peter Greenaway
Starring	Joan Plowright Juliet Stevenson Joely Richardson Bernard Hill Jason Edwards
Music by	Michael Nyman
Cinematography	Sacha Vierny
Edited by	John Wilson
Distributed by	Prestige
Release date	10 September 1988
Running time	118 minutes
Country	United Kingdom Netherlands
Language	English
Box office	$424,773

Drowning by Numbers
Soundtrack album by Michael Nyman
Released	1988
Recorded	1988
Genre	contemporary classical music, Minimalist music, film score
Length	44:48
Label	Virgin, Caroline
Director	Michael Nyman
Producer	David Cunningham & Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman chronology
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat 1988 Drowning by Numbers 1988 La Traversée de Paris 1989

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Drowning by Numbers is a 1988 British-Dutch film directed by Peter Greenaway. It won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the Cannes Film Festival of 1988.

The film's plot centres on three married women — a grandmother, her daughter, and her niece — each named Cissie Colpitts. As the story progresses, each woman successively drowns her husband. The three Cissie Colpittses are played by Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson and Joely Richardson, while Bernard Hill plays the coroner, Madgett, who is cajoled into covering up the three crimes.

The structure, with similar stories repeated three times, is reminiscent of a fairy tale, most specifically 'The Billy Goats Gruff', because Madgett is constantly promised greater rewards as he tries his luck with each of the Cissies in turn. The link to folklore is further established by Madgett's son Smut, who recites the rules of various unusual games played by the characters as if they were ancient traditions. Many of these games are invented for the film, including:

In Drowning by Numbers, number-counting, the rules of games and the repetitions of the plot are all devices which emphasize structure and symmetry. Through the course of the film each of the numbers 1 to 100 appears in sequence, often seen in the background, sometimes spoken by the characters.

The film is set in and around Southwold, Suffolk, England, with key landmarks such as the Victorian water tower, Southwold Lighthouse, and the estuary of the River Blyth clearly identifiable.