Review of The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982)
Peter Greenaway (writer-director).
Seen in 2018.
An unscrupulous man is contracted to draw 12 pictures of an English manor house in 1694.
Like Barry Lyndon (1975), with almost as much in-scene lighting, but pared down to a chamber play at the cost of realism and drama. An intellectual delight, plus good acting and mildly caricatured, beautiful costumes. Greenaway’s compulsive listmaking is less prominent than usual. “The statue” makes good comic relief, but the comedic tone is rather different from Tom Jones (1963).