The Draughtsman's Contract

A film set in seventeenth-century England. Mr Neville is a known draughtsman. The lady of an estate commissions twelve drawings; her husband is going away and the house will greet him on his return with a set of views. A contract is drawn. Alongside the fee there is another clause: for each drawing she promises him a return through her own body. Neville begins. His method is strict: he draws at a fixed hour in a fixed place each day and requires everything within that frame to stay still. Nothing in the grounds is to be moved. But things appear in the drawings: a shirt, a ladder, a shoe, a horse. Neville draws them because he sees them and does not know what they mean. The owner's return is delayed and then a body is found. The details in the drawings become evidence at once. What the film is interested in is the difference between looking and seeing, and how an image turns into proof. The design resembles painting: a fixed camera, symmetrical framing and candlelight. The music is by Michael Nyman and is built on themes taken from a composer of the period. Anthony Higgins plays Neville and Janet Suzman the lady of the house. Peter Greenaway directed. An original production for anyone who likes formal cinema and puzzle narratives. For a viewer expecting a straight mystery, the language is heavy and the dialogue deliberately artificial.