Review of The Draughtsman's Contract

Made in 1982, The Draughtsman's Contract is Peter Greenaway's first conventional narrative feature film, but the use of the word "conventional" comes with caveats. Set in 1694, it's a period drama and a murder mystery, but the latter isn't explicitly solved even though it's possible to work out who the murderers are. The film showcases Greenaway's idiosyncratic, painterly style, or to put it another way, it's very eccentric. The Draughtsman's Contract sees the eponymous draughtsman Mr Neville commissioned by one Mrs Herbert to produce twelve landscape drawings of her husband's estate. Her husband is away, and turns up dead in the house's moat about two thirds of the way through the film, which is when it becomes - superficially - a murder mystery. Whilst drawing his landscapes, Mr Neville's contract gives him the freedom to order the staff and guests at the house to remove themselves from his views; it also allows him to have sexual intercourse with Mrs Herbert at set times. Whilst drawing, he frequently irritates Mrs Herbert's German son-in-law Mr Talmann. And whilst all of this is taking place, a naked "living statue" runs around the grounds of the house striking artistic poses for no reason that is every adequately explained, or indeed explained at all. The whole film is absurd and looks both pretentious and indulgent. And yet it works stupendously well. This is literally film-making as art, with Greenaway's composition of every shot reflecting Neville's framing of his landscapes. Greenaway punctures any perceived pretentiousness by imbuing the film with a wicked sense of a humour, both in the bizarre behaviour of the living statue and in the dry, witty screenplay, which he wrote. When Mrs Herbert is asked why her husband doesn't have the moat cleared out, she replies "He doesn't like to see the fish. Carp live too long. They remind him of Catholics"; coupled with the film's visual extravagance, this gives the piece a tongue-in-cheek feel that excuses its excesses. The humour is not always verbal: at one point Mrs Talmann furtively masturbates whilst her husband sleeps. The film is a visual feast, not only in the framing of the shots, but in Greenaway's mise-en-scéne. An artist before he was a film-maker, he pays homage to artists past by composing frames like paintings, with props - especially fruit -often positioned between the actors and the camera. The extravagant costumes, wigs and make-up are as grotesque as they are flamboyant. In contrast to Greenaway's later The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover - which is shot entirely in studio - this is filmed entirely on location at Groombridge Place, which is essential in a film in which landscapes are a key ingredient of the plot. The film is a delight for the ears too, both in the dialogue that is as florid and extravagant as the costumes, and in Greenaway's long-time collaborator Michael Nyman's magnificent soundtrack, which reflects the era but sounds wholly original. Faced with Greenaway's bizarre screenplay, the cast seemingly has enormous fun. Everybody embraces his or her role, from Anthony Higgins as Neville, to Hugh Fraser as Talmann, the pair sparring throughout, mostly with barbed comments. Janet Suzman is superb as Mrs Herbert, alternately conveying the increasing indignity of Neville's sexual demands, and her character's devious manipulation of him. The first ten minutes consists of pairs of characters talking to each other, which does little for the plot but gives pretty much every cast member some lines to play with. In any other film sometimes described as murder mystery, the conclusion would see the murderer revealed. Instead, The Draughtsman's Contract ends with Neville for paying for his constant aggravation of Mr Talmann by being blinded, stripped, beaten, clubbed to death and dumped in the moat whilst the living statue watches with placid curiosity and eats a pineapple. It's an idiosyncratic - if brutal and abrupt - end to an idiosyncratic film, that cemented Greenaway's reputation as a film maker of considerable, if unorthodox, talent.