THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT Movie Review

At a lavish English country estate in 1694, a young painter (Anthony Higgins) makes a deal with the estate's owner (Janet Suzman) to complete a dozen renderings of the place, but the terms of his employment are unusual indeed. Strange goings-on are replaced by even stranger goings-on, and just what exactly the draughtsman is up to is revealed slowly, in the form of the drawings he produces. Stepping back a level, the film's director, Peter Greenaway, is performing precisely the same function as the draughtsman, allowing the meanings of his film to develop slowly, in the details, though when it's over you may well wonder if anything at all has been revealed other than Greenaway's extraordinary capacity for producing striking mise en scène. It's a film that seems the product of a brilliant smart-ass; when it's over you may want to congratulate Greenaway on his vision and originality, and then punch him in the mouth.

NEXT STOP … The Falls, Drowning by Numbers, The Pillow Book

1982 (R) 103m/C GB Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman, Anne Louise Lambert, Hugh Fraser; D:Peter Greenaway; W:Peter Greenaway; C: Sacha Vierny; M: Michael Nyman. VHS MGM, FCT