A Walk Through H is a pretty typical example of an early Peter Greenaway film. Like others he made from the 70's it's a narrative free experimental work that explores the possibilities of what film as a medium can be. Unsurprisingly, it contains both the strengths and weaknesses these other films share. The idea of it is essentially a walk through a gallery which exhibits 92 drawings of maps. The film is a graphical journey through these maps, where we zoom in and pan across them looking at them in some detail, while following a red 'road' which is the channel in which we navigate these strange landscapes. All the while, a narrator explains about how he came to possess the maps and tells anecdotes about the things we encounter within them.
This is another experimental film from Greenaway which showcases his highly personal and bizarre fascinations. There is the adherence to cataloguing, many references to ornithology and footage of various birds, the appearance of elusive Greenaway characters Tulse Luper and Van Hoyten and relentless narration full of strange humour. It also features once more the distinctive minimalist music of Michael Nyman. I felt the film was at its strongest latterly when this impressive soundtrack took centre stage at the expense of the narration by Colin Cantlie. It may just be me but I do find Cantlie's voice fairly annoying, especially when recounting Greenaway's script. I have always found Greenaway films to be consistently visually interesting but hampered somewhat when people open their mouths to recite his words. I find him a fairly poor writer but impressive visual artist and A Walk Through H is no exception on that front for me, as I did find the narration to become hard to bear after a while. It's possibly because the ideas in this film, while interesting to an extent, probably need a slightly more expansive approach to engage the viewer more, such as the approach he took in the earlier Vertical Features Remake (1978). This is certainly another uncompromisingly experimental bit of work from Greenaway though, so if you like his unique style this will surely not disappoint.
