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A couple of months ago, Kevin Lee asked me to watch Peter Greenaway’sThe Draughtsman’s Contract, #922 on the They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They? list of the 1,000 Greatest Films of all time, so that I could contribute to his series of video essays devoted to the films on the list.
I’ve actually been known in the past as something of a Greenaway apologist, but for whatever reason, I found Draughtsman’s ridiculously difficult to get through. I kept returning to a note that I jotted down within the first couple of minutes of the film: “What was Derek Jarman doing the year this film was made? What was Duran Duran doing?” It’s that axis of British culture of the early 1980s that Kevin and I ended up exploring in the above video. But if it was my idea idea to travel down this road, the brilliance of applying the video effects from Rio to footage of Margaret Thatcher on the eve of the Falklands War was all Kevin. Watch and discuss.
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We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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But but but Jubilee came out in 77 and was hence pre-Thatcher, so it’s jaunty-apocalypso mood suited the times of terrified cheekyness and light-hearted/wry wisdom on a decaying Britain. Draughtsman’s Contract is from 82, and so completely of Thatcher, which explains its attempt to make something glossy, escapist and a cry for cheekyness in a very serious very dangerous Britian. I think they are both totally of their time, but not comparable - 77 and 82 are like decades apart in British society. You wanna compare Greenaway and Jarman on Thatcher, you need The Last of England - now THAT is a way to respond to the depression of Thatcher with seriousness, which I guess is what you’re wanting.
Really great video though, i enjoyed it lots.
Charlie, one of the points I made that got cut out of the video was that Jarman didn’t necessarily lead to Greenaway, but that the aesthetics of something like Jubilee were seeping into more general pop culture by 82. This video was edited down from an hour long conversation, and while I think my basic point comes across, some of the finer details had to be cut for time.
OK that is very true - in retrospect, when you have what the Derek Jarman video for It’s a Sin does in 4 minutes, you don’t need an hour of Greenaway.