The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Writer:

Peter Greenaway (written by)

Release Date:

7 July 1983 (Australia)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

A landscape of lust and cunning. [Video Australia]

Plot:

Mr. Neville, a cocksure young artist is contracted by Mrs. Herbert, the wife of a wealthy landowner...

Plot Keywords:

Artist | Contract | Drawing | Indignant | Dutch

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Anthony Higgins	...	Mr. Neville
Janet Suzman	...	Mrs. Herbert
Anne-Louise Lambert	...	Mrs. Talmann
Hugh Fraser	...	Mr. Talmann
Neil Cunningham	...	Mr. Noyes
Dave Hill	...	Mr. Herbert
David Gant	...	Mr. Seymour
David Meyer	...	The Poulencs
Tony Meyer	...	The Poulencs
Nicolas Amer	...	Mr. Parkes
Suzan Crowley	...	Mrs. Pierpont
Lynda La Plante	...	Mrs. Clement (as Lynda Marchal)
Michael Feast	...	The Statue
Alastair Cummings	...	Philip
Steve Ubels	...	Mr. Van Hoyten

Runtime:

103 min | Finland:109 min (1983)

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German | Dutch

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Italy:VM14 | Australia:M | Australia:MA (DVD rating) | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | South Korea:18 | Sweden:11 | UK:15 | USA:R | Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Groombridge Place, Groombridge, Kent, England, UK

Company:

British Film Institute (BFI)

Trivia:

The movie was originally inspired by Peter Greenaway's attempts to draw a house he'd rented for a vacation and finding that the sun rising/falling changed the shadows and appearance too rapidly for a drawing to be completed in one sitting. He thus spent a specific period each day drawing the house from a specific angle (like the draughtsman in the movie).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The cooing of a collared dove is not a sound that would have fallen on Jacobean ears, as the species was unknown in Britain until 1955.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Mr. Noyes: Mr. Chandos was a man who spent more time with his gardener than his wife. They discussed plum trees - ad nauseam. He gave his family and his tennants cause to dread September, for they were regaled with plums till their guts rumbled like thunder and their backsides ached from overuse. He built the chapel at Fouvant, where the pews are made of plumwood, so the tennants still have cause to remember Chandos through their backsides - on account of the splinters.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#2.3)" (1989)

Soundtrack:

Queen Of The Night

Rich, tart and amusing art-house thriller

This film should really be a 4 star triumph. Almost the entire film is constituted of still-framed shots on location, optimising and occasionally irrespective of the weather conditions. The acting is brilliant; stylised, sure, but always engaging and intriguing. The script is an object lesson in exposition and narrative through convincing dialogue. Crucially the whole thing is endlessly amusing, witty, startling, suggestive and naughty.

There's a problem. Mindful of its aesthetic, it's static and relies on the highly wrought script too much. The vernacular (another seamlessly incorporated feature of the writing) intensifies its density... consequently I found it difficult to follow in the detail it probably deserved. Not as tense, nor as sexy a piece as The Cook etc. but funnier. 6/10