Cinema: Restoration

THE DRAUGHTSMAN'S CONTRACT Directed and Written by Peter Greenaway

Imagine that, buried in a forgotten carrel at the back of the British Museum, a hitherto unknown comedy by the 17th century playwright William Congreve had been discovered. Fancy further that his comedy was put not on the stage but on film, with every world-weary epigram and convoluted conceit intact. Such a notion must have occurred to the English experimental film maker Peter Greenaway. With The Draughtsman's Contract, which he wrote and directed two years ago, he has restored the Restoration sensibility. Here is a comedy-mystery laced with Triple Sec humor...

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