The Tulse Luper Suitcases Trilogy by Peter Greenaway, talented British director Peter Greenaway and renowned Dutch producer Kees Kasander have chosen the Montreal Festival of Nouveau Cinema for a world-première presentation of the complete Tulse Luper Suitcases, consisting of a trilogy of feature films plus a Web site and a multiplayer game designed especially to accompany the saga. Peter Greenaway and Kees Kasander will be in Montreal from October 18 to 22.

A true multimedia project, The Tulse Luper Suitcases stars J.J. Feild, Isabella Rossellini, Caroline Dhavernas, Ornella Muti, Roger Rees and others. According to Peter Greenaway, “The Tulse Luper Suitcases is an ambitious attempt to enter fully into the Digital Age. A project of large geographical and historical scope, it encyclopedically examines in feature films, DVDs, theatre-plays, exhibitions, installations, Web sites and books, the life of Tulse Luper, professional prisoner, collector and collator from 1911 to 2003. The investigations are centred on 92 packed suitcases collected from all over the world, which, when examined and unpacked, reveal more and more accumulated evidence of his life and times. The Tulse Luper Suitcases is mastered and edited on digital HD, with a desire to be a true product of post-celluloid cinema, entering into all the exciting potential of image and sound proliferation that the new media of the moving image are offering.” The Festival presentation is the first opportunity for audiences to screen the complete seven-hour adventure.

At last year’s Festival, Peter Greenaway gave a sold-out masterclass in which he discussed his views of the future of cinema. The event was filmed, and the Festival now invites audiences to view the results on the big screen.

The Tulse Luper Network (www.tulselupernetwork.com) is the Web site devoted to the project. It includes online archives of Luper’s adventures, places he visited, characters he encountered, his prisons, his projects, selected 20th-century events, and, of course, the contents of the 92 suitcases. Festival-goers will find it to be an excellent complement to the films. In addition, audiences will have the chance to enter the world of Tulse Luper, thanks to the launch of an online game, The Tulse Luper Journey. Based on the films, the game takes players on a trip through 20th-century Europe in Luper’s complicated, enigmatic footsteps.

Finally, The Montreal company DigiScreen, which offers an HD distribution and screening network, presents its first Webler. The Webler is a cross between a Web site, DVD extras, a CD-ROM, and a trailer. It allows users to go right into the thick of the film and its subtleties. With interactive elements, a gallery of drawings by Peter Greenaway, sets from the film and encounters with a multitude of characters.