Product Details

• Actors: Anthony Higgins, Janet Suzman, Anne-Louise Lambert, Hugh Fraser, Neil Cunningham
• Directors: Peter Greenaway
• Writers: Peter Greenaway
• Producers: David Payne, Peter Sainsbury
• Format: Color, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Dutch, English, German
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Fox Lorber
• VHS Release Date: November 23, 1999
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00002JWYK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,450 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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

Review

"Four Stars. What we have here is a tantalizing puzzle, wrapped in eroticism and presented with the utmost elegance. I have never seen a film quite like it.... His movie is like a crossword puzzle for the senses." --Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times

"The film is mannered and idiosyncratic; the speeches are so arch and twitty they seem to be pitched higher than a dog whistle, and the people talking are popinjays in perukes shaped as geometrically as the shrubs at Marienbad." --Pauline Kael

"Astonishingly elegant... extraordinarily detailed... mind-bendingly rich. The Draughtsman's Contract is fun." --Vincent Canby, The New York Times

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite movie, October 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Draughtsman's Contract [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is the only movie I've seen more than five times. The plot is always fascinating because every explanation I come up with has some flaw, although there seem to be clues everywhere. The arch dialog is delicious, and delivered by the actors with obvious relish. This is the only movie I find myself quoting lines from, simply for the fun of it. The cast is perfect. The music is wonderfully atmospheric. The scenery is luscious. It may require a decadent taste to enjoy this movie, but if you have that, it is the ideal entertainment. I haven't found anything else of Peter Greenaway's watchable. But The Draughtsman's Contract is a masterpiece.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quite fascinating, October 14, 2000

By 

Daniel Sutton "opwernby" (Los Angeles, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Draughtsman's Contract (DVD)

This beautifully shot, highly intelligent, somewhat surreal and shockingly unknown film was originally made by Peter Greenaway for the opening night of Channel Four Television in Britain, and represents, perhaps, the man at his peak. The story, which avoids any direct explanations of itself or its plot, centres around a draughtsman (Higgins) who is hired to produce twelve drawings of a stately home in England. While he draws, objects appear in the landscape around him, which he includes in his drawings... when a body finally surfaces, do the drawings contain evidence concerning the identities of its murderers, or has some clever person purposely placed the objects in order to frame someone else... possibly the draughtsman himself? One may watch the film many times, each time coming up with a different answer; the motives and dialogue contradict each other just enough to add to the mystery, but not enough to ruin any possible explanation. The sountrack (by Michael Nyman) is also interesting: the themes within it are based on eight-bar samples of Mozart which are repeated and improvised upon, to hypnotising and evocative effect. A fascinating film.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not everyone will be "drawn" to this mystery--commentary, featurettes and new transfer highlight of set, February 22, 2008

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Draughtsman's Contract (DVD)

This new digital transfer looks quite nice but keep in mind the limitations of the format it was shot in--Super 16mm (most TV shows were shot in 16mm for British TV and this was financed by Channel 4--when watching this new digitally restored transfer of "The Draughtman's Contract". The plan was for a theatrical release and then a TV airing. The budget was quite small. Super 16mm doesn't yield the fine detail of 35mm or 70mm. The transfer is an improvement over the previously available DVD but it also reveals the flaws of the source so the high definition elements can't mask the limitations of Super 16mm.

The real reason to get this though is for the extras. We get a commentary track by director Peter Greenaway as well as an introduction that's almost long enough to be a featurette on the making of the film. We also get deleted scenes, an interview with composer Michael Nyman ("The Piano"--this was one of Nyman's first scores), a restoration demonstration, behind-the-scenes footage and on set interviews and the original theatrical trailer for the film. There is also a booklet with an essay by Greenaway (don't read it until AFTER you have seen the film if this is your first time viewing it)and an interview with Cinematographer Curtis Clark discussing how he and Greenaway decided to use Super 16mm and the challenge of shooting only by candlelight.


"The Draughtman's Contract" won't be for everyone. Director Peter Greenaway deliberately sought to subvert the way a traditional period piece was portrayed in film with this unusual and elliptic mystery. Part social commentary and avant garde period piece. Greenaway has his actors behave in a stiff, formal way often posing as often as performing. Imagine an avant-garde period film written by Patricia Highsmith and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and you might just get an idea of what "The Draughtman's Contract" is like.

The plot is simple--Mr. Neville a draughtsman who creates pictures of valuable items for the wealthy is employed by Mrs. Herbert the wife of a stuffy and insufferably man. She plans to give the pictures that Neville draws as a gift to her husband when he returns from his journey. Neville's terms are difficult to say the least--he demands that she engage in degrading sex with him, provide room and board plus his usual fee. Neville thinks himself superior to those he provides service to and makes that quite clear his speech and attitude. It's a time of stuffy people doing stuffy things and Neville takes advantage of it. In many respects, Neville is just as bad as the master of the house subjecting the family to his whims but things take an unusual turn when it appears that a murder may have been committed.


"The Draughtman's Contract" is certainly unusual and for those adventurous enough to try it (and those that enjoy "art films" something that Greenaway was trying to take the stuffing out of anyway with this film), you'll probably enjoy it. It is an acquired taste so I would recommend a rental before purchasing.