H is for House (1976) Peter Greenaway shorts

Inspired at the time by teaching his children the alphabet, Greenaway’s film recounts objects that begin with the letter ‘h’ as seen through the eye of a child, a tactic later to features in the narrative for The Draughtsman’s Contract when an aristocratic toddler produces his own rendition of the country house gardens. But it’s also a playful translation of sorts of the Canadian avant-garde film Zorns Lemma (1970) by his much loved Hollis Frampton, in which the letters of the alphabet are serially moved through by way of images that represent or evoke each letter. As Greenaway himself remarked to cataloguers at the BFI National Archive: ‘No scripting in this film – it again follows the credo - make a film of collected images filmed in a casual way of what turns up whilst enjoying – for example - a country walk, often with my young family of the time – walking at their pace, interested in what at that time they were interested in - let the images dictate.’