The Draughtsman's Contract

“A landscape of lust and cunning.”

Mr. Neville (Anthony Higgins), a brash young draftsman, accepts a commission to make twelve drawings of an estate in Wiltshire, England, in 1694. The terms include a private arrangement with the owner's wife, Virginia Herbert (Janet Suzman), while her husband is away. Peter Greenaway sets Neville among the formal gardens of Groombridge Place, where Michael Nyman's score, borrowed from Purcell, runs under the clipped hedges and the elaborate costumes.