The Draughtsman's Contract is a 1982 British film written and directed by Peter Greenaway. Originally produced for Channel 4 the film is a form of murder mystery, set in 1694. The period setting is reflected in Michael Nyman's score, which borrows extensively from Henry Purcell, and in the extensive and elaborate costume designs (which slightly exaggerate those of the period for effect). The action was shot on location in the house and formal gardens of Groombridge Place.
Plot
Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins), a young and arrogant artist, is contracted to produce a series of 12 landscape drawings of an estate by Mrs. Virginia Herbert (Janet Suzman) for her absent and estranged husband. Part of the contract is that Mrs Herbert agrees "to meet Mr Neville in private and to comply with his requests concerning his pleasure with me." Several sexual encounters between them follow. Later he makes a similar contract with Mrs Herbert's married, yet childless, daughter. In the second contract, however, he agrees to comply with what is described as her pleasure, rather than his—a reversal of the position in regard to her mother.
A number of curious objects appear in Neville's drawings, which point ultimately to the murder of Mr Herbert, whose body is discovered in the moat of the house. The drawings can be interpreted to suggest more than one illegal act and to implicate more than one person. There is a violent and shocking plot resolution.
Themes
Themes in the movie include power, conceit and deceit. A curious deceit perpetrated on the audience is a set of allusions about where the house is; some allude to the Southampton area, but the house is in fact further east, in Kent. This is because the woman who owned the house in the 1980s did not want the public searching out her house and traipsing around it. These explanations are also used by characters in the movie. This deceit continues on the 2008 DVD release, which refers on the inside cover notes to Wiltshire as the location of the house.
Background
The original cut of the film was about three hours long. The opening scene was about 30 minutes long and showed each character talking, at least once, with every other character. Possibly to make the film easier to watch, Greenaway edited it to 103 minutes. The opening scene is now about 10 minutes long and no longer shows all the interactions among all of the characters. Some anomalies in the longer version film are such intentional anachronisms as the depiction of the usage of a cordless phone in the 17th century setting[1] and the inclusion on the walls of the house of paintings by Greenaway in emulation of Roy Lichtenstein; these are partially visible in the released version of the film.
The released final version provides fewer explanations to the plot's numerous oddities and mysteries. The main murder mystery is never solved, though little doubt remains as to who did it. The reasons for the 'living statue' in the garden and why Mr. Neville attached so many conditions to his contract were also more developed in the first version. These cuts could be said to add to the sense of mystery and wonder of the film, rather than making it more confusing.
Music
Michael Nyman's score is derived from grounds by Henry Purcell overlaid by new melodies. The original plan was to use one ground for every two of the twelve drawings, but Nyman states in the liner notes that this was unworkable. Ironically, the ground for one of the most popular pieces, "An Eye for Optical Theory," is now considered to be probably composed by William Croft, a contemporary of Purcell. The goal was to create a generalized memory of Purcell, rather than specific memories, so a piece as recognized as "Dido's Lament" was not considered an acceptable source of a ground. Purcell is credited as a "music consultant."
The album was the fourth album release by Michael Nyman and the third to feature the Michael Nyman Band.
The following ground sources are taken from the chart in Pwyll ap Siôn's The Music of Michael Nyman: Text, Context and Intertext[2], reordered to match their sequence on the album:
Track listing
- Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds 2:33 (King Arthur, Act III, Scene 2, Prelude (as Cupid descends))
- The Disposition of the Linen 4:47 ("She Loves and She Confesses Too" (Secular Song, Z.413))
- A Watery Death 3:31 ("Chaconne" from Suite No. 2 in G Minor)
- The Garden Is Becoming a Robe Room 6:05 ("Here the deities approve" from Welcome to all the Pleasures (Ode); E minor ground in Henry Playford's collection, Musick's Hand-Maid (Second Part))
- Queen of the Night 6:09 ("So when the glitt'ring Queen of the Night" from The Yorkshire Feast Song)
- An Eye for Optical Theory 5:09 (Ground in C minor (D221) [attributed to William Croft])
- Bravura in the Face of Grief 12:16 ("The Plaint" from The Fairy-Queen, Act V)
The first music heard in the film is, in fact, a bit of Purcell's song, "Queen of the Night". "The Disposition of the Linen", in its Nyman formulation, is a waltz, a form that postdates Purcell by approximately a century and a half.
Personnel
Performed by the Michael Nyman Band
- engineered by J. Martin Rex at Studio 80 with Brad Grisdale, Dave Hunt, Steve Smith, Robert Zimbler at Berry Street Studio
- post production: Tony Cousins at Townhouse Tape Copying
- music consultant: H. Purcell
- music supervisor: Michael Nyman
- produced by David Cunnigham for Piano Records in 1982
- liner notes by Michael Nyman, Peter Greenaway
- photography: Simon Archer
- xerography: Laurie-Rae Chamberlain
The album was issued on compact disc in 1989 by Virgin Records, marketed in the United States by Caroline Records under their Blue Plate imprint. Initially this was indicated with a sticker; it was later incorporated into the back cover design in a much smaller size.
The entire album has been rerecorded by the current lineup of the Michael Nyman Band. See The Composer's Cut Series Volume I: The Draughtsman's Contract.
Art References
The visual references for the film are paintings by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Vermeer and other Renaissance artists and this gives the film a "painterly quality"[3]. Greenway also said: "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"[4].
Restoration
The film was originally shot on 16 mm film, then blown up to 35 mm for cinema releases. In 2003 the BFI restored the film digitally and this restoration was released on DVD.
References
- ^ Willochet, Paula. Peter Greenaway in Indianapolis lecture, Introduction. 1997.
- ^ Siôn, Pwyll ap. The Music of Michael Nyman: Text, Context and Intertext, page 96.
- ^ motion.kodak.com
- ^ L'avant-scène cinéma, "Peter Greenaway: Meurtre dans un jardin anglais", n° 333, October 1984
External links
