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Following Peter Greenaway's narration-led documentary, The Falls (1980), the BFI Production Board suggested that Greenaway made a film where people actually
talked to each other.
The result, The Draughtsman's Contract, is not as different to Greenaway's
previous work, however, as one might at first think. The draughtsman effectively
acts as a traditional narrator when he outlines his drawing intentions (alluding
to a form of fictional 'making-of' documentary), as do the party gossips at the
very beginning of the film; they do not talk to each other, they simply talk. As
in his previous films, Greenaway uses his creative works in other mediums
to add to the overall text of the film, in this case the drawings as seemingly
undertaken by the draughtsman.
The film's 17th century setting allows the exploration of the social and
political structures of the time; the Married Women's Property Act hovers in the
background. Indeed, despite the male ownership of both property and women, and
despite some appearances to the contrary, it is the women of the film who
consistently hold the upper hand, using sex and other ruses to control men and
pursue their broader desires. The relationship between these ideas is explored
in later Greenaway films, perhaps most explicitly in Drowning by Numbers
(1984).
The formalised 17th century language of the film also allies well with
Greenaway's own highly formalised language, and is frequently built around
suggestion, at times becoming highly sexualised. This ambiguity and detachment
in conversation has led some critics to refer to the film as a science fiction -
possibly allied with the earlier Water Wrackets (1978).
It is an intensely detailed but coherent world that the film conjures, but
despite the draughtsman's professed pursuit of objectivity - "I do not disguise
or disassemble" - it is a made world, and one open to interpretation. Trees are
subjected to grafting, the landscape to flooding, and all this is layered again
through interpretation; witness another draughtsman, in the form of a Dutch
child, and the very different drawing that he produces. Regardless of
this, the act of witness is held to be paramount - due to all he has seen, the
social climbing draughtsman, Mr. Neville, must be disposed of, beginning with
his eyes.
William Fowler
*This film is available on BFI DVD.
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1. Contractual negotiations (3:49)
