A LANDSCAPE OF LUST AND CUNNING.

In 1694, an artist (Anthony Higgins) is hired to make twelve drawings of a country estate, but the contract also includes sexual favors.

Peter Greenaway’s breakthrough is an odd, original comedy with macabre and peculiar ingredients, involving wicked games between well-articulated people in elaborate costumes, a murder mystery, garden decorations that look very much alive, and a shocker of an ending.

Not for all tastes, but it’s hard not to admire the poisonous dialogue; Higgins and Hugh Fraser among the cast; the gorgeous setting; and Michael Nyman’s memorable arrangement of Henry Purcell’s music.

1982-U.K. 104 min. Color. Written and directed by Peter Greenaway. Cinematography: Curtis Clark. Music: Michael Nyman. Cast: Anthony Higgins (Mr. Neville), Janet Suzman (Virginia Herbert), Dave Hill (Mr. Herbert), Anne-Louise Lambert (Sarah Talmann), Hugh Fraser, Neil Cunningham, Lynda La Plante.

Trivia: The completed drawings were made by Greenaway himself.

Quote: “When your speech is as coarse as your face, Louis, then you sound as impotent by day as you perform by night.” (Lambert to Fraser)

Last word: “I had made about 20 films [before this one], but they were all experimental, very low budgets, most of them shot on 16mm, most of them black and white. I was trained as a painter, and I still think that painting is vastly superior to cinema. We’ve only had cinema for about, what, 130 years? But we’ve had painting for at least 45,000 years. So an awful lot of people have been practicing painting; very few people, comparatively, have been practicing filmmaking. You might find that a strange comment, but I believe that to be the truth, and it informs a lot of my filmmaking.” (Greenaway, MUBI)

---