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DVD : The Draughtsman's Contract |
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781572527614
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1572527617
Label: Fox Lorber
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Fox Lorber
Release Date: December 14, 1999
Running Time: 103 minutes
Studio: Fox Lorber
Theatrical Release Date: 1982
Sales Rank: 51868
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
"I try very hard never to distort or dissemble," says Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins), a draughtsman of considerable talent contracted by a certain Mrs. Herbert (Janet Suzman) to make 12 drawings for her absent husband of their English estate. Part of that contract involves Mr. Neville taking his pleasure, and that pleasure is Mrs. Herbert. While Mr. Neville aims for fidelity in his drawings, infidelity in private is quite another matter. Then the film becomes a cerebral puzzle when objects start appearing mysteriously in the subjects of Mr. Neville's various drawings: a ladder that wasn't there before, a pair of boots standing in a field. Mr. Neville's penchant for realism is stymied by these clues, which may or may not suggest the murder of Mr. Herbert. Peter Greenaway seems to have directed this, his first art-house success, with the aim of exploring the failings of perspective in art and casting his doubtful eye on the possibility of "faithful" drawings such as those by which Mr. Neville makes his living. Greenaway was, after all, an art student, and must have known that drawing machines like the one Mr. Neville uses in the film (which is set in 1694) led not only to the invention of photography, and therefore of film itself, but also to the renouncing of perspective that informs so much of 20th-century painting.
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
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Fairly tame by Greenaway's standards, this costume drama about a man hired to create a series of drawings of an English country estate is neither particularly tedious or grotesque, though since it consists mostly of short scenes in which a static camera watches people in wigs snipe at each other in formal 17th century prose, The Draughtsman's Contract does seem constantly poised on the edge of becoming a Monty Python skit. The plot, such as it is, concerns the way the pictures become infused with ... Read More
Rating:  -
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 ... Read More
Rating: -
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 ... Read More
Rating: -
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, ... Read More
Rating:  -
Whatever Greenaway is trying to achieve here--historical allegory, 17th-century sex romp, comedy of manners, etc.--is beyond most of us, I'm afraid.
It begs the question: who's he making the movie for? Is this pandering to some tiny group of intelligentsia who'll watch it and then proudly declare that they--and yes, they alone--'get it'? Which of course leaves the rest of us--the great unwashed and uneducated masses--scratching our heads and asking for our money back.
Frankly, this is ... Read More
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