A landscape of lust and cunning.

Peter Greenaway's first fiction feature (after the mock-documentary The Falls) made him immediately famous and was named one of the most original films of the 1980s by British critics. The action is set in the director's beloved 17th century. Ambitious young artist Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins) is invited by Mrs. Herbert (Janet Suzman) to make 12 elaborate sketches of her estate. Besides money, the contract includes sexual favors that Mrs. Herbert will offer to the draughtsman in the absence of Mr. Herbert. Entirely confident in his ability to weave a web of intrigues, Mr. Neville eventually becomes a victim of someone else's elaborate scheme. The film is structured as a sophisticated intellectual puzzle like the ones popular in the 17th century. There is a lot to pay attention to besides the intrigues -- fancy wigs, conversations by candlelight, English parks, Purcell-inspired baroque music by Michael Nyman, all to please the eyes, soothe the ears, and stimulate the mind.

The Draughtsman's Contract is a 1982 British film written and directed by Peter Greenaway – his first conventional feature film (following the feature-length mockumentary The Falls). Originally produced for Channel 4 the film is a form of murder mystery, set in rural Wiltshire, England in 1694 (during the reign of William and Mary). The period setting is reflected in Michael Nyman's score, which borrows extensively from Henry Purcell and in the extensive and elaborate costume designs (which slightly exaggerate those of the period for effect). The action was shot on location in the house and formal gardens of Groombridge Place.[2] The film received the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Film Critics Association.

Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins), a young and arrogant artist and something of a Byronic hero, is contracted to produce a series of 12 landscape drawings of an estate, by Mrs. Virginia Herbert (Janet Suzman) for her absent and estranged husband. Part of the contract is that Mrs. Herbert agrees "to meet Mr. Neville in private and to comply with his requests concerning his pleasure with me." Several sexual encounters between them follow, each of them acted in such a way as to emphasise reluctance or distress on the part of Mrs Herbert and sexual aggression or insensitivity on the part of Mr Neville. Whilst living on the estate, Mr. Neville gains quite a reputation with its dwellers, especially with Mrs. Herbert's son-in-law, Mr. Talmann.

Mrs. Herbert, wearied of meeting Mr. Neville for his pleasure, tries to terminate the contract before all of the drawings are completed and orders Mr. Neville to stop. Neville refuses to void the contract and continues as before. Then Mrs. Herbert's married but as yet childless, daughter Mrs. Talmann, who has apparently become attracted to Mr. Neville, seems to blackmail him into making a second contract in which he agrees to comply with what is described as her pleasure, rather than his — a reversal of the position in regard to her mother.

A number of curious objects appear in Neville's drawings, which point ultimately to the murder of Mr. Herbert, whose body is discovered in the moat of the house. Mr. Neville completes his twelve drawings and leaves the house but returns to make an unlucky thirteenth drawing. In the evening, while Mr. Neville is apparently finishing the final sketch, he is approached by a masked stranger, who is obviously Mr. Talmann in disguise, who is then joined by Mr. Noyes, Mr. Seymore and the Poulencs, a pair of eccentric local landowner twins. The party accuses Mr. Neville of the murder of Mr. Herbert, for the drawings can be interpreted to suggest more than one illegal act and to implicate more than one person. After he defensively denies such accusations, the group ask Mr. Neville to remove his hat. He agrees mockingly, at which point they hit him on the head, burn out his eyes, club him to death and then throw him into the moat, at the place where Mr. Herbert's body was found.

Release Date: June 22, 1983 from UA Classics