Drowning by Numbers

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.{{cite web | url=http://petergreenaway.org.uk/numberloc.htm | title=Number locations | access-date=31 August 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180114024105/http://petergreenaway.org.uk/numberloc.htm | archive-date=14 January 2018}}

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 list|

• Natalie Morse - the little 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

}}

{{Infobox album

| name = Drowning by Numbers

| type = soundtrack

| artist = Michael Nyman

| cover = Drowningbynumbers.jpg

| released = {{Film date|1988}}

| recorded = 1988

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = contemporary classical music, Minimalist music, film score

| length = 44:48

| label = Virgin, Caroline

| director = Michael Nyman

| producer = David Cunningham & Michael Nyman

| prev_title = The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

| prev_year = 1988

| year = 1988

| next_title = La Traversée de Paris

| next_year = 1989

}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = Allmusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|4|5}} {{AllMusic|class=album|id=r193472|first=Stephen|last=Cook}}

| rev2 =

| rev2Score =

}}

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, bars 58 to 61 of which are heard in their original form immediately after each drowning. Greenaway alerted Nyman to the potential of this piece in the late 1970s and had previously used it as material for part of the score of his The Falls and for "The Masterwork" Award Winning Fish-Knife and Tristram Shandy.Michael Nyman, sleevenotes to Drowning by Numbers CD, Virgin Records CDVE23, 1988 "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|date=October 2009}}

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

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.Fred Ritzel, "[http://www.staff.unioldenburg.de/ritzel/Material/PLANSPIELE0.htm Planspiele, zum Verhältnis von Bild und Musik bei Peter Greenaway und Michael Nyman]", 1993 (in German) These are subtle ways of drawing attention to the key bars of the Mozart piece.

{{Expand section|date=March 2025}}

Reviews for Drowning by Numbers were mostly favourable. {{Rotten Tomatoes prose|88|7.1|16|access-date={{RT data|access date}}}}{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/drowning-by-numbers |title=Drowning by Numbers (1988) |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=December 12, 2022}} 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."{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/drowning-by-numbers-1991 |title=Drowning By Numbers Movie Review (1991) |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=June 7, 1991 |access-date=January 27, 2017}}

It made £220,000.

• 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.

{{reflist}}

• [http://petergreenaway.org.uk/drowning.htm Drowning by Numbers at petergreenaway.org.uk]
• {{IMDb title|0092929}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|drowning-by-numbers}}

{{Peter Greenaway}}

{{Michael Nyman}}

{{Warsaw Film Festival Audience Award}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1988 crime drama films

Category:1988 films

Category:1988 independent films

Category:British crime drama films

Category:British independent films

Category:Dutch avant-garde and experimental films

Category:Dutch crime drama films

Category:Dutch independent films

Category:Films about dysfunctional families

Category:Films about marriage

Category:Films about murderers

Category:Films about widowhood

Category:Films directed by Peter Greenaway

Category:Films set in Suffolk

Category:Films shot in Suffolk

Category:Films scored by Michael Nyman

Category:1980s English-language films

Category:1980s British films

Category:English-language Dutch films

Category:English-language independent films

Category:English-language crime drama films