Sightlines · reception
How The Draughtsman's Contract was received
1982 · Peter Greenaway · The Draughtsman's Contract on Sightlines
The arc
A tiny BFI/Channel 4-funded art film that became a surprise international hit in 1982, turning Peter Greenaway from an experimental obscurity into British art cinema's most talked-about export — and it's still the film even Greenaway skeptics tend to concede is the one that works.
What’s debated
The eternal Greenaway fight plays out here in miniature: is this dazzling, wickedly funny formal games, or chilly, arch cleverness with no human pulse — with fans countering that it's easily his most accessible way in.
Its footprint
Michael Nyman's Purcell-driven score long ago escaped the film — 'Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds' turns up in adverts, trailers and concert halls, and the film's towering wigs and razor-sharp country-house compositions remain instantly recognizable shorthand for baroque excess.
Where it stands
The consensus 'start here' Greenaway — a cornerstone of 1980s British art cinema and a steady cult favorite among cinephiles who love their period pieces cold, witty and geometric.
Did you know? Michael Nyman built the score around ground basses by Henry Purcell — a composer who was actually alive and working in the 1690s, when the film is set — making it one of the rare period-film scores drawn from the exact music of its moment.
Named by the director
- Last Year at Marienbad (1961) — Greenaway has repeatedly named Resnais's country-house puzzle as the formative influence behind his own game-playing estate mystery.
- Alain Resnais — Greenaway has often cited Resnais as the filmmaker who made him want to make films, an influence he acknowledged feeding directly into this one.