The Belly of an Architect
by Peter Greenaway
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DVD details
Actor: Brian Dennehy, Chloe Webb, Lambert Wilson, Sergio Fantoni, Stefania CasiniDirector: Peter Greenaway
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 119 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-15
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of The Belly of an Architect
DVD Review: Belly of an Architect
Summary: 4 Stars
Belly of an Architect: An underappreciated Peter Greenaway film with a title that many people respond to viscerally... it's pure visual splendor and Brian Dennehy is amazing as the frustrated ailing hero. If you're a Greenaway fan, and loved "Pillow Book" as I did, check this one out.
DVD Review: "As if it's any of your business, which I doubt!"
Summary: 1 Stars
Pregnant Louisa (Chloe Webb) spoke the above line to her husband, the architect Kracklite (what a name - played by Brian Dennehy) when he asked where she was going to go, when she announced she was leaving him...she then proceeded to tell him where she was going (to live with his nemesis who would take care of her until the baby was born - apparently after that he would throw her and the baby out). Louisa told her husband she was leaving him because she didn't want to "drop" the child too soon - because she was due in a month and his exhibition was in twelve days. Her character definitely did not have a way with words or common sense. I couldn't believe such horrible writing existed, but Ms. Webb's acting is even worse - I mean much, much worse than a first grade play.
Dennehy is an architect in Rome, who becomes ill, and even his own doctor is mean to him, showing him (he has the busts) how other artist's died "foolish" deaths (in his opinion). In my opinion, they just died. Maybe the doctor was trying to say that they lived their lives foolishly, but as I said, it's bad writing.
No wonder I never heard of this movie. It's awful. Dennehy is the only decent actor, so that he looks and sounds absolutely wonderful in comparison to everyone else, but he can't save this junk.
DVD Review: A Greenaway masterpiece, his most humanistic film, with an extraordinary performance by Brian Dennehy...
Summary: 5 Stars
Many people accuse Greenaway of being too cerebral, too cold and dyseptic a filmmaker. Those who think that should check this film out, one of his best films and buoyed by an extraordinary performance by Brian Dennehy.
The film concerns itself with Stourley Cracklite (played by Dennehy), an architect from Chicago who is putting on an exhibition dedicated to Etienne-Louis Boullee, a little known but visionary architect (Boulle was a real architect by the way). One would generally not expect an actor like Dennehy to fit in perfectly with Greenaway's universe, but Dennehy manages to do it with aplomb. Dennehy is also a stage actor (which is much respected for), and Greenaway's long take style really fits well with him, as theater actors are able to concentrate much more than strictly film actors, and are able to sustain emotions for longer periods of time.
Greenaway's mise en scene is fascinating throughout, especially the shots of the actual exhibition, which are really striking. Dennehy's overpowering performance really makes you feel for him, and it gives it a more humanistic edge than much of Greenaway's work, which can be overly cerebral and cold at times. The supporting players are generally good, except for Chloe Webb, who is just OK in her role as Cracklite's cheating wife. Sacha Vierny's cinematography is magnificent througout, Greenaway's framing is impeccable as usual, and the film is arguably Greenaway's most moving film. Despite a miscast Webb, the film is practically perfect.
DVD Review: Longing for his flat belly days?
Summary: 4 Stars
Perhaps it is a mid-life crisis and a fear of death that simultaneously hits Chicago architect Stourley Kracklite (Brian Dennehy). He has traveled to Rome to present an elaborate tribute to the French architect Louis Boullee. Kracklite is fifty-four years old, uncertain that he has fulfilled the promise of his youth. He is married to a woman (Chloe Webb) young enough to be his daughter. So when he begins to develop stomach pains (perhaps due to a growing stomach tumor) while working in Rome and gets no satisfaction from doctors, he begins to believe his wife is poisoning him. Furthermore it appears that she is having an affair with an Italian architect named Caspasian (Lambert Wilson) who also desires to take over Kracklite's Boullee project. I think a lot of men in their fifties can identify with these sorts of threats to their well-being and perhaps be unable to tell the real from the unreal.
So the human belly is a big deal in this film. At one point Kracklite prints out scores of photocopies of the belly of a Roman statue as if in scrutinizing mass copies of a flat belly he might somehow explain why he is in pain. Or perhaps the flat belly symbolizes his lost youth and the insecure feeling he has about the affection and faithfulness of Louisa, his young wife. Maybe it is even the case that the belly is a euphemistic symbol of something else that is no longer as vital as it once was. When men in their fifties worry about such things they also worry about their ability not just to cut the mustard but the quality of their work. In short, they worry about being superseded. One cannot help but feel in this case that Kracklite's growing paranoia is in part responsible for his declining power. Fear of something may give it strength.
As for the way cinematic auteur Peter Greenaway directs this film, I think his intent is to let the film reflect the subject matter in the sense that both are of artistic intent while accenting the fact that the movie is not--at least not primarily--a commercial enterprise. He shows the beauty of the architectural ruins of Rome. He thinks in terms of tableaux in wide shots. He picks a backdrop and sets the camera at some distance from the backdrop: Italian ruins, a spacious lobby, expansive steps in front of an impressive building. And then he plays the scene. Unlike most modern directors he mostly eschews close-ups. I'd rather he didn't. The effect is like being in a theater watching a play. There is a certain appropriateness I suppose about this technique since it creates in the viewer a feeling of spying, which is exactly what Kracklite finds himself doing in one scene, looking through a keyhole to see what his wife and Capasian are doing; and Greenaway has us see too, at the same distance.
In another sense, there is a studied feel to this movie that suggests something a bit cold like marble which again is appropriate. Yet Brian Dennehy, in an intense, engaging performance, makes us feel for him and his predicament. We understand that he is realizing his mortality and we appreciate that his reaction is understandably confused and frightened. As for his wife, she seems distant not only because of the camera work but perhaps because she is psychologically estranged from her husband and from what he is going through.
DVD Review: What Do Customers Usually Buy After Viewing This Item? A Gun...
Summary: 1 Stars
...ANYthing to put themselves out of the misery of having spent the time to watch this movie. One of the most aimless wastes of time in my life - worse even than all the accumulated hours I spent as a youth reading "Nancy" in the local newspaper. You've been warned.
Description of The Belly of an Architect
Writer-director Peter Greenaway (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover) puts "the 'art' back into the art film" (The Hollywood Reporter) with this work of "pure visual poetry" (Boston Herald) that "celebrates Rome and its architecture with elegance and discernment" (The New York Times) and boasts Brian Dennehy's "best performance of his screen career" (LA Weekly)! American architect Stourley Kracklite (Dennehy) can't see the beauty in Rome throughhis pain. Intense stomachaches are crippling him and, worse, he believes his pregnant young wife ishaving an affair with his archrival! As his suspicions turn to paranoia and obsession, and his marriage, health and reputation begin to unravel, this once-respected man becomes consumed by his own self-torture from the inside out!Italy DVDs
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