Gratuitous Llama Netflix Movie Review

An interesting choice of viewing this past weekend: The Draughtsman's Contract, a tale of lust, greed, intrigue and murder set amongst the gentry during the reign of William & Mary. This movie was recommended to me by one of you after I griped about what a dud Restoration turned out to be. Thanks, whoever it was!

Unlike Restoration, TDC is a genuine period piece, the sort of thing one used to see on Masterpiece Theatre all the time before it decided to get "relevant". The story starts when an arrogant young draughtsman agrees to draw twelve views of a country estate in exchange for twelve sexual favors from the wife of the owner of the place. I went into it thinking that this was going to be something along the lines of "Emmanuelle Does Dutch Billy", but it turns out to be nothing of the sort. Instead, it's a very crafty, difficult murder mystery that goes very deep into the motivations of the various characters involved. It is impossible to let yourself get lazy for an instant, as clues and insights are being batted about almost constantly. Furthermore, it never dumbs itself down. (For instance, part of the tension of the plot turns around Anglo-Dutch and Protestant-Catholic animosities in English society during the reign of W & M, but it never stops to explain them.)

Visually, it's a great movie if you like that sort of thing. The sets (on location in Kent) and costumes are terrific. The only thing I found annoying was the music. (No, it wasn't historically misplaced, but rather composed for the movie itself.) It was both dull and repetitive and soon got to be distracting from everything else.

The one thing I did not get about the film was Naked Statue Guy. If somebody else who has seen this film can explain to me who he was and what his significance might have been, I'd appreciate it.

UPDATE: A good explanation of Naked Statue Guy in the comments. Dunno why I've never come across this phenom before. Probably just as well, given my mime allergies.

Anyhoo, while poking for more information on living statues, I came across this site devoted to the films of Peter Greenaway, which has an interesting review of TDC and a better description of it than I have managed to produce:

The only Peter Greenaway film designed to specifically evoke a certain British time period, The Draughtsman's Contract appears on the surface like some twisted Restoration comedy filled with scheming aristocrats and clever turns of phrase. One of the most enthusiastically received and controversial feature debuts of the early '80s, this remained Greenaway's most high profile effort for eight years until The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover firmly secured his position in the art house pantheon. However, Draughtsman actually has much in common with his later work, ranging from the bizarre background details, such as a nude living statue, to the brutal, jarring twist ending.

At a gossipy dinner party, an arrogant young draughtsman, Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins), is enlisted by the middle-aged Mrs. Herbert (Janet Suzman) to execute twelve drawings of the Herbert estate as a surprise gift for her loutish husband, who is usually away on business. In exchange, Mrs. Herbert will go along with Mr. Neville's sexual demands, once for each drawing. Mrs. Herbert's daughter (Anne-Louise Lambert) becomes more than a little intrigued by the arrangement and enters into a similar bargaining position with Neville, whose fussiness with the layout of each drawing compels him to chase sheep away from the scenery and demand passersby to wear the same clothing each day. However, some inconsistencies in the day to day arrangement of seemingly familiar objects, such as linen and open windows, cause Neville to wonder whether Mr. Herbert is actually away on business... or perhaps is no longer among the living.

As with many Greenaway films, all of the characters are more pieces of a diabolical mind puzzle than living, breathing human beings, bereft even of first names, and the cast gamely acts accordingly. As Neville, Higgins (also in Vampire Circus and Flavia the Heretic under the name Anthony Corlan) has one of his most memorable roles and finds the humor in an essentially repellent character. Without giving too much away, the various layers of the narrative may prove off-putting to viewers who expect to find some redeeming qualities unveiled at the end of the film; there will be no redemption or clever moralizing here. As a document of a historical period, Draughtsman is remarkably convincing, particularly considering its virutally nonexistent budget. The costumes, scenery, and stylish lighting manage to equal Barry Lyndon with a fraction of the resources, while Greenaway's intricate and biting script should keep English majors chortling with delight. Interestingly, his original festival cut of the film ran a full three hours and reportedly contained a number of crucial plot points and explanations which would up on the cutting room floor, including a rationale for the living statue. Unfortunately, this version has not been screened since 1982 and may have been lost forever (if it doesn't exist in one of Greenaway's vaults somewhere).

Emphasis added. So I suppose I'm not alone in not quite understanding how he fit into the plot.