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THE DRAUGHTMANS CONTRACT

By
Peter Greenaway
I would like to write about this film in retrospect, as it is one of the nicest and most interesting, and
as time goes by I remain more persuaded than ever in my decision to select this as one of my all-
time favourites.
Peter, the director, was a keen painter, and in his youth he was rather determined to pursue a
career in painting.
This is exactly a reason why he has incorporated paintings in this flagship movie of his, as an
interpreting tool to lead us thru this imaginative story of crime of vendetta and passion, which is
taking centre stage in a remote and idyllic part of the ideal and nave British Country side.
However, this beautiful estate in Wiltshire has deliberately been chosen to represent the Garden of
Eden, it is a metaphor for paradise on earth.
Regardless of its noble character, this garden has become a location of a brutal murder that would
contaminate and compromise this little Heaven.
The challenge is thrown at a drop of a hat, and almost instantly we begin to harvest information that
we as an audience believe would be substantial in the revealing of the murderer, as the sole
interpretation of the commissioned drawings becomes a detective story.
As each drawing is presented, we begin to get swallowed up into this secretive plot deliberately
orchestrated to murder the owner of the estate, each time being sucked up more and more into a
bizarre chain of events that would make everyone a suspect.
Every one of the 13 commissioned drawings introduces the audience to a part of the crime scene,
unfolding a pre-emptively drawn up plan to execute the heir of the vast property.
Anyway, the story is set in a time when there was no Law Enforcement, and justice back then was
pursued in a rather different way than now.
Greenaway deliberately breaks the traditional stereotype film narrative to deliver a more interesting
way of interpreting a detective story.
Everything is done thru reading into the commissioned paintings; the investigator is the painter
himself; the evidence is presented and captured on the actual paintings; the crime tools and murder
weapons are incorporated as details into the paintings; the very paintings become proof of crime,
they suddenly become much more significant as it is more than obvious that the committed crime
could be revealed thru observing and interpretation of the drawings.
As the drawings take shape, we learn more of the main characters on the estate, their relationship
between them and their involvement with the actual property.
The more we seem to discover, the bigger the murder mystery becomes.
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Each time we are presented with evidence, we are misled into several possible scenarios.
But who would be nave enough as to commission a person who will reveal and discover a murder,
particularly when the crime has been committed by the person paying for the drawings?
Little does the artist realise that he has deliberately been commissioned to get incriminated and
accused of the murders himself.
As more of the crime is revealed and the drawings become finished, the murder mystery swallows
up the artist who is still unaware of being a part of the plot to be accused and identified as the killer
himself.
This whole mesmerising marriage of a crime detective story and a costume drama is most incredible,
giving constantly a notion that we should be rather in a pursuit of something else other than a
murder mystery and a crime story.
The murder becomes almost superficial, when we unfold and become more familiar with the evident
facts that in reality matter, as the impotence of the Mar. Talmann, who cant perform in bed good
enough as to produce a child to one day inherit this vast estate.
We once again are reminded that the artist is much more needed and becomes substantial, not so
much for the drawings, but for pleasure and finally and above all, as a stud, wholl in fact produce
the real heir once the owner is murdered.
But, it is in the active moments between drawings that very strong opinions are exchanged and
consummated, and we learn much of the state of religion and politics in that part of Europe back
then.
Religious indoctrination, prejudice, superstition, anxiety and xenophobia, aimed directly against the
noble commandment to love thy neighbour, we see antagonism flourish and blossom, German
against English, Protestant versus Catholic, Western Europe it seems has become more paranoid and
intolerant than ever in those days of new land discovery and acquisition by the old great powers.
The merger between state religion and politics seemed nothing more but an act of loyalty to king
and Country, after all those were the days of absolute monarchy, when electorate and People power
held very little political influence.
The line is drawn firmly by then and both Protestant and Catholic camps are well established,
contemplating a way in which to retaliate in the next endeavour to win the will of the same Lord,
each Christian denomination has been chasing since the dawn of time.
As much as we in the West want to think that we live in secular societies, and that religion and
politics do not go hand in hand in our part of the world, the separation between church and
Monarchy was a rather painful and very gradual process of evolution, it seems.
Much of the well-known religious tolerance that has recently become a Mantra in contemporary
Europe would have only been seen as an obstruction to the state religion that dominated each
country on the continent with an Iron grip.
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The obnoxious decadence in the highest social circles of the elite, we discover, particularly among
family members of noble landowners, is corrupt, morally degrading and evanescent, especially when
it comes to the mind intrigues that come into play over inheritance and money matters as well as
influence.
For the benefit of balance of power and to counter weight the initial contract to preserve
equilibrium on the estate, the daughter of Mrs Herbert makes another counter proposal and
additionally conditions the Artist into a second contract.
Not a scene goes by that we dont get constantly reminded by Mr Greenaway of the meaning of
visual interpretation that has according to the director been lost in our societies to be replaced with
oral and reading traditions of interpretation.
Apparently, we no longer see to understand, as much of us are both visually and artistically illiterate,
and are in no position to interpret according to our experience of what we see, as that tradition has
been lost to be gradually replaced with our rich heritage in western societies with reading.
Back when Hieroglyphs were the script for exchange of information and communication, only to be
exchanged by standardized linear scripts, our societies were much more interpretative of drawings,
as pictures were the norm for exchange of information.
Back then, everything was open to interpretation, only to be replaced with perhaps a more accurate
way of reading, even the scientific was a matter of interpretation
This is why the Age of Prophets delivered a heritage and tradition of interpreters of the will of the
Gods, as the very word in Greek means to foretell our destinies by interpretation.
The Garden, that very ideal background impregnated into our sub conscience thru The Genesis
stories about Adam and Eve before the Sin, is the ultimate ideal of unspoiled and uncontaminated,
the uncompromised environment of temptation to challenge Gods Will with disobedience, becomes
now centre stage of a pre-empted murder.
What a reverse of positions
What could be done to unspoilt this remarkable place of Paradise on Earth?
Much to the opinion of Mr Greenaway, we have become blind to see
And our Artist, Mr Neville, was obnoxiously ignorant of the story of Persephone and the symbolisms
of the Juice of the Pomegranate fruit.
As Mrs Herbert deliberately squeezes and squirts pomegranate all over a white sheet of cotton
fabric used as a bed cover, much of the allegation to incriminate the artist of rape to justify the all of
the sudden pregnancy of the daughter of Mrs Herbert, Mr Neville is once again stunned of the
ingenious plot to produce a heir to the Estate and finally deal with the impotence of Mr Tallman who
could unfortunately not deliver.
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As the entire murder conspiracy draws to an end, now the only thing left is to justify the sudden
pregnancy as anything but adultery, but Mr Neville is still Too blind to See, that he is the only
convenient way out of this mystery
When a possibility becomes open as to Mr Nevilles attempt to infiltrate the estate on more
permanent basis, by penetrating a long term relationship with the now widowed Mrs Herbert, the
swords are finally drawn.
The animal instinct to survive is much more potent when it comes to money and inheritance of
substantial value.
It is most unusual that the most noble and privileged of us are perhaps more criminal minded and
perverted and have seen more Sin than any of us could possibly imagine
Most people are visually illiterate, is a quote by Mr Greenaway himself, giving us a constant
reminder of what a strong opinionated man he is himself, when it comes to visual interpretation.
Our rich Heritage of Seeing to believe, has been replaced by the establishment of another
tradition, that revolves around The Book.
But Civilisation is nothing but a Thin crust, a mere part of the human existence, only a drop in the
Ocean in the evolution of the Species, and the Human experience.
Now, with our oral and written traditions replacing the visual way of perception, what is the future
of Cinema?
In the end, the visual still and moving experience is the chosen medium for Mr, Greenaway, and his
tool of expression.
Cinema, it seems has compressed our whole experience of visual Heritage and squeezed everything
in a time span of only a hundred years.
The Text masters will, to Mr Greenaway, once again, is replaced with the visual ones.
This probably explains the emphasis on the merger between the still and the moving image, to once
again conquer the world of communication and exchange, in the work of Mr Greenaway.
The question remains, are we visually literate, are we visually conscious?
In the land of the blind the one eyed man is King!
In the end, having said all this, we do get a paramount amount of substance in Mrs Herberts
classical education and her elaborate introduction narrative of Persephone, whereby despite of
being focused on images for the interpretation and resolve of the murder, we learn much that
Revenge is most certainly one of the most powerful of human emotions.
Finally, it seems as if we have all been left blind to the intellectual potential of a mother and
daughter, left out of a family inheritance, despite of being the rightful heirs to the country side
estate, because of the social prejudice and discrimination against women in those days
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