The Belly of an Architect
by Peter Greenaway
List Price:
Our Price: $9.45
You Save: $5.53 (37%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.85 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
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 (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 119 minutes
Published: 2004-06-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-15
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of The Belly of an Architect
DVD Review: Longing for his flat belly days?
Summary: 4 Stars
[Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.]
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.
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!Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Blow UpHEMMINGS,DAVID; Release date: 2004-02-17; DVD
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Prospero's BooksAllied Artists Classics; Release date: 2009-09-18; Published: 2007; DVD
Best price: $39.99
Price in other shops:
The Early Years of Greenaway: The ShortsZeitgeist Films; Release date: 2006-04-11; DVD
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
A Zed & Two NoughtsZeitgeist Films; Release date: 2008-02-12; DVD
Best price: $16.08
Price in other shops:
![Drowning by Numbers [VHS] Image](/images/Drowning-by-Numbers-VHS-B0000065T8-X.jpg){kind=small}
Drowning by Numbers [VHS]Artisan Entertainment; Release date: 1993-02-10; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $90.44
The Pillow BookWU,VIVAIN; Release date: 1998-12-15; Published: 1998-12-01; DVD
Best price: $13.95
Price in other shops:
Baby of MaconRelease date: 2011-04-29; DVD
Best price: $19.99
![The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover [Region 2] Image](/images/The-Cook-the-Thief-His-Wife-Her-Lover-Region-2-B0000UM0NU-X.jpg)
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover [Region 2]DVD
Best price: $9.38
The Draughtsman's ContractZeitgeist Films; Release date: 2008-02-12; DVD
Best price: $10.72
Price in other shops:
Nightwatching (Two Disc Special Edition)Koch International; Release date: 2009-09-15; DVD
Best price: $11.17
Price in other shops: