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	Draughtsman's Contract Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman Fox Lorber, 1999 average customer review:based on 34 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

In the film, Greenaway overlays the story's mysterious elements with highly mannered tableaux, making each scene like a realistic, though sumptuous, painting, while having his actors spout witty and complicated sentences. While this is very entertaining, it has a dual purpose, which is to depict the falseness of surfaces. Mr. Neville's faith in the same is his downfall, and Greenaway's triumph is in his distortions and dissemblings, the narrative lie that gets closer to the truth than any architectural drawing could. --Jim Gay

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Ignore the 1 & 2 star reviews

Forget the bad reviews you see here. Clearly this film went... swoosh... right over their heads. Not that these 1 & 2 star folks are dumb or anything, but this is an unusual film in that one has to ACTUALLY PAY ATTENTION to what is on the screen plus you must LISTEN to what is being said... not the norm for most motion pictures these days. You cannot talk on your cell phone and get up for snacks repeatedly during this film. You will be lost if you do.

Greenaway has done a simple thing here: He has written a Restoration Mystery. Like the Restoration Comedies of Dryden or Congreve, the language is thick and full of double and even triple innuendoes. Like Agatha Christie....it's a murder mystery with clues that tell you exactly who done it. [If you pay attention, it is quite clear who actually did the deed and on behalf of whom.] Terribly British and terribly wonderful! There are many wonderful images and many wonderful speeches unlike a completely forgettable film like...well "Ridicule". There no attempt to make it "relevant" my making it modern-ish like say the recent "Marie Antoinette". There's no need.... greed, prejudice, hubris are all timeless. They're all here....pay attention!

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A brief comment

This movie is a study in the dangers that lurk beneath what seem like otherwise polite, ordinary human discourse and relations. As the legendary Paul Muni said in the movie, "A Song to Remember," (about the life of composer Fredrick Chopin), "I don't know what's underneath, but the surface is very highly polished." :-)

The main character, a Mr. Neville, is an intelligent, talented, but in many ways extremely flawed individual. He is intelligent but does not reflect on his actions; as an artist, he is perceptive but doesn't truly see what is going on around him; and his politics are at odds with his wealthier, more powerful hosts. These conflicts set the stage for the final climax of the film, which I won't spoil for you here, but the movie should be of special interest to those who appreciate a very well executed period piece (complete with a musical score that has been said to sound like a "horny Handel"), as well as Greenaway fans.

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under rewarded film noir

The plot of The Draughtsnmman's contract has been summarized so often, that I can concentrate on the impact of this astonishing film. In the first 15 minutes we see the set up of another costume drama. But listen to the dialogue. It seems arch, even phony, but we are learning that there is something hidden in all the desperate sexual inuendo. The husband is too conveniently absent. The daughter's husband too clearly disinterested in making an heir for his father-in-law's estate. Watch the mistress turn the idea of paying the painter with favors turn into a plot to provide an heir for the state. The instigating incedent is slow and deliberate, but it predicts what is to come.
The mid-part of the story has two twenty minute sections, six drawings to a section, six couplings with a few clues that something weird is going on. Statues move, the master's clothing is left about, and the artist takes a holiday. Then he returns for the final drawings, and the daughter claims her rights. Maybe she can become pregnant, and if not, maybe the artist can be framed for the disappearance of the master. But, no, the master's body is found, murdered. I look for confirmation in the film that the daughter is pregnant and the artist has served his purpose, but do not see it. Even so, the artist is executed by private revenge.
Good guy gets the shaft?
No, the artist is an opportunist, the women are also, and the murderers of the artist are too. But who did in the master? The wife and daughter, who get away with it?
Viewers should not be put off by the appearance of a custume drama. Th Draughtsman's Contract is the most interesting movie of the last twenty-five years. It should be among the cult movies. It is also, on its own term, a witty look at the world of Restoration Drama when England was just strutting on to the world's stage. She was about to humble France, to rule the oceans, to dominate world trade and banking and to establish representative government. Viewers who want to belittle the prestensions of the English would do well to rest their impatience and see what the English were like as the world turned its face towards them in 1694.

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Master's Smile

The first Peter Greenaway's feature "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1982) - is absolutely delightful, devilishly clever (just imagine the best Agatha Christy's mystery with all sorts of clues and suspects but without Poirot or Ms. Maple to explain in the end whodunit and why. You are on your own to try to figure out - everything you need to know is right there), and funny (Yes, Greenaway can be funny!) art film - the perfect example of an art film. It combines the elements of social satire with murder mystery, meditates on the power of art and role of an artist, studies family drama and mothers - daughters love and understanding, perfectly wraps it in sensual pleasure - and what the pleasure it is. I know I will watch it again because it is a feast for eyes (I've seen big budget movies that looked plain comparing to this one shot on the limited funds), ears (Michael Nyman wrote one of the best score ever for this film) and for brain - there are mysteries and puzzles in every frame and in every dialog.

There is couple of Greenaway's thoughts on his first film and on the films that influenced him from the interview that was published in L'Avant-Scene Cinema", No 333, October 1984:

"Majority of my films may be viewed on several levels. Thus, in "The Draughtsman's Contract" there was the desire to open the symbolism of plants and fruits, to study the connections between the aristocrats and the common people, the conflicts between the worlds of gentlemen and of servants. With my films, I hope to generate interest, to stimulate imagination, to wake feelings...

I consider that 90% of my films one way or another refers to paintings. "Contract" quite openly refers to Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour and other French and Italian artists...

Before the work on the film began, I did not explain to film crew what I wanted, but I showed them five European films: "Fellini's Casanova", "The Last Tango in Paris" by Bertolucci, "The Marquise of O" by Eric Rohmer, "Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach" by Jean-Marie Straub and, most importantly, "Last Year at Marienbad" by Alain Resnais which has been the most influential film for me."

4.5/5 (9/10)

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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