The Draughtsmans Contract

Starring: Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman Director: Peter Greenaway Dvd Release: 14th December, 1999 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Colour, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen, Region 0 Encoding

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The Draughtsmans Contract was a 1982 film written & directed by Peter Greenaway. The film is a period piece set in 1694,. It was originally produced for Channel 4. The score was by Michael Nyman & borrows extensively from Henry Purcell. Mr Neville, a young & arrogant artist, is contracted to produce a series of 12 landscape drawings of an estate by Mrs Virginia Herbert for her absent & estranged husband. Part of the agreement is that Neville is allowed to make love to Mrs Herbert as part of the payment for the drawings. A number of curious objects appear in Nevilles drawings, which point, ultimately to the murder of Mr Herbert, whose body is discovered in the moat of the house. The drawings themselves appear to implicate Neville. The Draughtsmans Contract   at the Internet Movie Database.

I try very hard never to distort or dissemble, says Mr. Neville , a draughtsman of considerable talent contracted by a certain Mrs Herbert to make 12 drawings for her absent husband of their English estate. Part of that contract involves Mr Neville taking his pleasure with Mrs Herbert. While Mr Neville aims for fidelity in his drawings, infidelity in private is quite another matter. The film becomes a cerebral puzzle when objects start appearing mysteriously in the subjects of Mr Nevilles various drawings: a ladder that wasnt there before, a pair of boots standing in a field. Mr Nevilles 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 & 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, & must have known that drawing machines like the one Mr Neville uses in the film led not only to the invention of photography, & 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 storys mysterious elements with highly mannered tableaux, shooting each scene like a realistic, though sumptuous, painting, while his actors spout witty & complicated sentences, suggesting the falseness of surfaces. Mr Nevilles faith in surface is his downfall, & Greenaways triumph is in his distortions & dissemblings, the narrative lie that gets closer to the truth than any architectural drawing could.

Anthony Higgins is a British actor, born in Northampton. Perhaps his most well-known role was that of Gobler in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Commander. Blackdog. David Sperry. The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. A Traitor to Memory. James Pitchley. Trial & Retribution III. Karl Wilding. For Love or Money. Christian Hanover. Sherlock Holmes Returns. Sherlock Holmes. One Against the Wind. SS Capt. Herman Gruber. The Strauss Dynasty TV Series. Johann Strauss. Darlings of the Gods. Laurence Olivier. Napoleon & Josephine. A Love Story TV Series. Joseph. Young Sherlock Holmes. Professor Rathe a .k .a Eh Tar. Reilly. The Ace of Spies TV Series. Trilisser. The Draughtsmans Contract. Mr. Neville. The Eagle of the Ninth TV Series. Marcus Flavius Aquila. Something for Everyone. Helmuth Von Ornstein. Taste the Blood of Dracula. Paul Paxton. A Walk with Love & Death. Robert of Loris. Anthony Higgins at the Internet Movie Database.

Editors Choice: The Draughtsmans Contract, Max Mon Amour, View DVDology

Janet Suzman is a South African actress. Born in Johannesburg, she is a niece of anti- apartheid campaigner, Helen Suzman. Suzman tends to run towards classical works, performing in many productions of Shakespeare plays & in such works as The Three Sisters & Hedda Gabler. Her marriage to director Trevor Nunn, which ended in divorce, was a famous theatrical alliance. She appeared in many British television drama productions in the 1960s & early 1970s. Her first film role was in 1971, in Nicholas & Alexandra & she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the Empress Alexandra. She has made few films since, the best-known being Nuns on the Run, a rare comedy performance.

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Peter Greenaway is a British filmmaker trained as a painter & a famous for his movies & exhibitions. Greenaway grew up in England, but was born in Newport in Wales. The family left Wales when Greenaway was three years old & moved to Essex, England. At an early age he decided he wanted to be a painter. He developed an interest in European cinema, focusing on the films of Antonioni, Bergman, Godard, Pasolini & Resnais. In 1962 he started studying at the Walthamstow College of Art, where amongst his fellow students was musician Ian Dury. Greenaway would spend the next three years there & at the time of arriving there he made his first film, Death of Sentiment about church yard furniture, crosses, flying angels, typography on grave stones & was filmed in four large London cemeteries. In 1965 he joined the Central Office of Information, where he remained for the next fifteen years as a film editor & then a director.

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