2012 Cannes Film Festival Predictions: Peter Greenaway’s Goltzius and the Pelican Company

Gist: Fitting snugly with Greenaway’s themes of theatre, storytelling, and abject depictions of the human, erotic form, this new film is a biography of sorts about Hendrik Goltzius, a late 16th century Dutch printer who convinces the Margrave of Alsace to pay for a printing press to make and publish his illustrated books. Goltzius promises an extraordinary book of pictures of the Old Testament Biblical stories, yet delivers erotic tales of Lot and his daughters, David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, and John the Baptist with Salome. To tempt the Margrave further, Goltzius and his printing company will offer to perform dramatizations of these erotic stories for his court.

Prediction: A title that could really show up anywhere (except Critics Week, of course), provided it is completed. We’re guessing that if it’s anywhere, it’ll be in the Fortnight, if for no other reason than the low profile the project has kept throughout its production.