Drowning by Numbers

1988 British film

Drowning by Numbers

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| Peter Greenaway
Written by| Peter Greenaway
Produced by| Kees Kasander
Denis Wigman
Starring| Joan Plowright
Juliet Stevenson
Joely Richardson
Bernard Hill
Jason Edwards
Cinematography| Sacha Vierny
Edited by| John Wilson
Music by| Michael Nyman
Distributed by| Prestige

Release date

* 10 September 1988 (1988-09-10)

Running time

| 118 minutes
Countries| United Kingdom
Netherlands
Language| English
Budget| £1,020,000[1]
Box office| $424,773[2]

Drowning by Numbers is a British-Dutch crime comedy-drama 1988 film directed by Peter Greenaway. It won the award for Best Artistic Contribution at the Cannes Film Festival of 1988.[3]

## Plot

[edit]

The film opens with a little girl jumping rope and counting stars to "a hundred". 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:

* Bees in the Trees
* Dawn Card Castles
* Deadman's Catch
* Flights of Fancy (or Reverse Strip Jump)
* The Great Death Game
* Hangman's Cricket
* The Hare and Hounds
* Sheep and Tides

In Drowning by Numbers, number-counting, the rules of games and the repetitions of the plot are all devices which emphasise structure. Through the course of the film each of the numbers 1 to 100 appear, the large majority in sequence, often seen in the background, sometimes printed on cattle, sometimes spoken by the characters.[4]

The repetitive, obsessive motif of the film echoes that of the soundtrack by Michael Nyman.

The film is set and was shot 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.

## Cast

[edit]

* Natalie Morse \- the little skipping girl counting stars in the opening
* Joan Plowright – Cissie Colpitts
* Juliet Stevenson – Cissie Colpitts
* Joely Richardson – Cissie Colpitts
* Bernard Hill – Madgett
* Jason Edwards – Smut
* Bryan Pringle – Jake
* Trevor Cooper – Hardy
* David Morrissey – Bellamy
* John Rogan – Gregory
* Paul Mooney \- Teigan
* Jane Gurnett \- Nancy
* Kenny Ireland \- Jonah Bognor
* Michael Percival - Moses Bognor
* Joanna Dickens \- Mrs. Hardy
* Janine Duvitski \- Marina Bellamy

## Music

[edit]

Drowning by Numbers

Soundtrack album by

Michael Nyman

Released|

* 1988 (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)

|
|

Professional ratingsReview scores

Source| Rating
Allmusic|  [5]

On Greenaway's specific instructions, the film's musical score by Michael Nyman is entirely based on themes from the slow movement of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante in E flat, which is heard in its original form immediately after each drowning. Greenaway alerted Nyman to the potential of this piece in the late 1970s and had previously requested he use bars 58 to 61 as material for part of the score of his The Falls, and Nyman adapted other themes from the piece for "The Masterwork" Award Winning Fish-Knife and Tristram Shandy.[6] "Trysting Fields" is the most complicated use of the material: every appoggiatura from the movement, and no other material from the piece, is used.[citation needed]

The album is the tenth by Nyman and the seventh to feature the Michael Nyman Band.

### Track listing

[edit]

1. "Trysting Fields"
2. "Sheep and Tides"
3. "Great Death Game"
4. "Drowning by Number 3"
5. "Wheelbarrow Walk"
6. "Dead Man's Catch"
7. "Drowning by Number 2"
8. "Bees in Trees"
9. "Fish Beach"
10. "Wedding Tango"
11. "Crematorium Conspiracy"
12. "Knowing the Ropes"
13. "Endgame"

The back cover of the album booklet has a large number "58". Fred Ritzel has pointed out that the Skipping Girl (played by Natalie Morse) reaches number 58 in her counting game.[7] These are subtle ways of drawing attention to the key bars of the Mozart piece.

## Reception

[edit]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2025)

|

Reviews for Drowning by Numbers were mostly favourable. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 88% of 16 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.1/10.[8] Roger Ebert, however, gave the work two stars, praising its landscapes as beautifully photographed but also concluding, "When the movie was over, I was not sure why Greenaway made it."[9]

### Box Office

[edit]

It made £220,000.[1]

## In popular culture

[edit]

* Émilie Gillet, designer of the Mutable Instruments range of electronic musical instruments and synthesizer modules, named alternative firmware for her Tides synthesiser module Sheep, in reference to the game featured in the film. Subsequently, alternative firmware called Bees-in-the-Trees, for the Mutable Instrument Braids synthesiser module, and Dead Man's Catch, for the Mutable Instrument Peaks module, have been published.
* Ambient electronic musician Yuri Tománek, who composed the music for the Netflix documentary series Cheer and Last Chance U releases recordings under the name Drowning by Numbers.
* The film helped to inspire Black metal band Farsot's 2017 album Fail-Lure.
* The How I Met Your Mother episode "Bad News" uses a numbering device inspired by the film. Numbers count down to the titular "Bad News", when character Marshall learns that his father has died.
* J. M. DeMatteis referenced the film in Marc Spector:"Moon Knight" #29.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 22.
2. ^ "Drowning by Numbers". Box Office Mojo.
3. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Drowning by Numbers". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 26 July 2009.
4. ^ "Number locations". Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
5. ^ Cook, Stephen. Drowning by Numbers at AllMusic
6. ^ Michael Nyman, sleevenotes to Drowning by Numbers CD, Virgin Records CDVE23, 1988
7. ^ Fred Ritzel, "Planspiele, zum Verhältnis von Bild und Musik bei Peter Greenaway und Michael Nyman", 1993 (in German)
8. ^ "Drowning by Numbers (1988)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
9. ^ Ebert, Roger (7 June 1991). "Drowning By Numbers Movie Review (1991)". Retrieved 27 January 2017.

## External links

[edit]

* Drowning by Numbers at petergreenaway.org.uk
* Drowning by Numbers at IMDb
* Drowning by Numbers at Rotten Tomatoes

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Peter Greenaway

* Vertical Features Remake (1978)
* The Falls (1980)
* The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
* The Coastline (1983)
* A Zed & Two Noughts (1985)
* The Belly of an Architect (1987)
* Drowning by Numbers (1988)
* The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
* A TV Dante (1989)
* Prospero's Books (1991)
* The Baby of Mâcon (1993)
* Stairs 1 Geneva (1994)
* The Pillow Book (1996)
* 8½ Women (1999)
* The Tulse Luper Suitcases (2003)
* Nightwatching (2007)
* Rembrandt's J'Accuse (2008)
* Castle Amerongen (2011)
* Goltzius and the Pelican Company (2012)
* Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015)
* Walking to Paris (2023)
* Tower Stories (TBA)

* v
* t
* e

Michael Nyman

Michael Nyman Band members|

| Current|

* Gabrielle Lester
* Catherine Thompson
* Kate Musker
* David Roach
* Simon Haram
* Andrew Findon
* Nigel Barr
* Dave Lee
* Steve Sidwell
* Martin Elliott
* Sarah Leonard

|

Former|

* Alexander Bălănescu
* John Harle
* Chris Laurence
* Ann Morfee
* Jonathan Carney
* Madeleine Mitchell
* Jamie Talbot
* Georgina Born
* Marjorie Dunn
* Beverley Davison
* Barry Guy
* John Greaves
* Andrew Shulman
* Michael Thompson
* Richard Watkins
* John Metcalfe
* Christian Forshaw
* Ute Lemper
* Marie Angel
* Hilary Summers
* Omar Ebrahim
* David Cunningham
* Molly Nyman

Nyman-produced
albums|

* Decay Music
* 'The Masterwork' Award Winning Fish-Knife
* Michael Nyman
* The Draughtsman's Contract
* The Cold Room
* The Kiss and Other Movements
* A Zed & Two Noughts
* And Do They Do/Zoo Caprices
* The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
* Drowning by Numbers
* La Traversée de Paris
* The Cook The Thief His Wife & Her Lover
* Out of the Ruins
* La Sept
* String Quartets 1–3
* Prospero's Books
* The Michael Nyman Songbook
* The Hairdresser's Husband
* The Essential Michael Nyman Band
* Time Will Pronounce
* The Piano
* Michael Nyman for Yohji Yamamoto
* The Piano Concerto/MGV
* À la folie
* Live
* Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs
* Carrington
* The Diary of Anne Frank
* After Extra Time
* The Ogre
* Enemy Zero
* Concertos
* Gattaca
* The Suit and the Photograph
* Strong on Oaks, Strong on the Causes of Oaks
* Practical Magic
* Ravenous
* Wonderland
* The Commissar Vanishes
* Nabbie's Love
* The End of the Affair
* The Claim
* String Quartets 2, 3 & 4/If & Why
* Facing Goya
* 24 Heures de la vie d'une femme
* Sangam: Michael Nyman Meets Indian Masters
* The Actors
* Man and Boy: Dada
* The Piano Sings
* The Libertine
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. I: The Draughtsman's Contract
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. II: Nyman/Greenaway Revisited
* The Composer's Cut Series Vol. III: The Piano
* Six Celan Songs • The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi
* Acts of Beauty • Exit no Exit
* Nyman Brass
* Love Counts
* Mozart 252
* 8 Lust Songs: I Sonetti Lussuriosi
* The Glare
* Acoustic Accordions

Nyman-contributed albums|

* The Pavilion of Dreams
* The Sensual World
* Piano Circus
* Taking a Line for a Second Walk
* Twentieth-Century Blues: The Songs of Noël Coward
* Generation Sex

Compilations|

* Pure Moods
* The Very Best of Michael Nyman: Film Music 1980–2001
* Man on Wire

Additional operas|

* Tristram Shandy
* Letters, Riddles and Writs
* Vital Statistics
* La Princesse de Milan

Unreleased
film scores|

* Vertical Features Remake
* The Falls
* Brimstone and Treacle
* Ballet Mécanique
* Monsieur Hire
* Mesmer
* Katie and Orbie
* Titch
* Act Without Words I
* Man with a Movie Camera
* Nathalie...
* À propos de Nice
* A Cock and Bull Story

Major individual
compositions|

* Memorial
* MGV

Family|

* Molly Nyman (daughter)

Category

* Les Disques du Crépuscule
* Minimalist music
* Systems music

* v
* t
* e

Warsaw International Film Festival-audience award winning films

* Birdy (1987)
* Koyaanisqatsi (1988)
* Drowning by Numbers (1989)
* Dead Poets Society (1990)
* The Double Life of Veronique (1991)
* Prospero's Books (1992)
* Coffee and Cigarettes III (1993)
* Arizona Dream (1994)
* Before the Rain (1995)
* Trainspotting (1996)
* The Full Monty (1997)
* Life Is Beautiful (1998)
* Children of Heaven (1999)
* Loners (2000)
* Italian for Beginners (2001)
* Elling (2002)
* Buddy (2003)
* Kontroll (2004)
* Adam's Apples (2005)
* The Lives of Others (2006)
* The Band's Visit (2007)
* Waltz with Bashir (2008)
* The Dark House (2009)
* Welcome (2009)
* Sound of Noise (2010)
* Rose (2011)
* Imagine (2012)
* Tangerines (2013)
* What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
* Room (2015)
* My Life as a Courgette (2016)
* A Hustler's Diary (2017)
* Heavy Trip (2018)
* All For My Mother (2019)

Authority control databases: National |

* Germany

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