Greenaway is an artist first and foremost- made a bunch of shorts and that really weird the falls (1980) 3 hour fake documentary which is not in my archives so this is his first real feature
There are only a half dozen or so camera movements and they are all side to side tracking shots
3 hour original cut- I think it’s a blessing that this ends up at 108 minutes
Symmetry in the frame—which is a Greenaway trademark starts here. Even from the opening he’s obsessed with mirroring—he has two twins dressed the same down to the spot of the fake moles on their face and the mother and daughter Herbert are dressed and stylized the same
Certainly crude in content and there’s a very real preoccupation with sex and power games—runs throughout much of Greenaway’s work—bizarre sexuality
The framing isn’t on their level but there’s mise-en-scene work here that is certainly from the lineage of Dreyer’s Gertrude or Von Sternberg
12 drawings in the contract—Greenaway likes plots that are straight-forward and numerical
This might be his most playful film, airy
Michael Nyman, composer, did the piano and this is well done
Form and repetition… Anthony Higgins main character (Neville) says “drawing number three will commence from 4pm…”
The draughtsman’s tools suite Greenaway—the drafting board with cells is like a camera frame
Chide remarks
Staging and garden landscaping
A sly medication on the abuse of power and comeuppance
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