# Belly of an Architect, The (1987)

### reviewed by
Ted Prigge

    THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT (1987)
    A Film Review by Ted Prigge
    Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge

Writer/Director: Peter Greenaway Starring: Brian Dennehy, Chloe Webb, Lambert Wilson, Sergio Fantoni, Vanni Corbellini, Alfredo Varelli, Geoffrey Copleston, Francesco Carnelutti, Stefano Gragnani

"The Belly of an Architect" is an interesting example of a film that applies metaphors to everything it presents. It's not so much concerned with telling a story or introducing characters as it is introducing one kind of a character, and trying to bring him down to what he really is. Films like these are challenges for the audience because they have to pay attention to every little thing that happens, remember lines that may come into context later on as they take on different meanings, and then later on try to figure out the themes its trying to present. In other words, it's a fun film for those who enjoy a film that's a puzzle.

The architect (and belly) being referred to in the title is Stourley Kracklite (the ever-likable Brian Dennehy), a man who arrives in Rome from Chicago with his much-younger wife, Louisa (Chloe Webb, the Nancy from "Sid and..."), to head an exhibition of the work of an older favorite architect of Kracklite's, Etienne-Louis Boulee. Arriving in the city, he is greeted with lots of warmth from the people working with him, and seems to be doing exactly what he wants to do with all the freedom he can have.

However, he soon begins to suffer some pains in his lower chest, and his life begins to tumble down in front of him. He learns that Boulee himself suffered pains much like his, and pretty soon is convinced that his wife is trying to poison him, since that is what happened to the Roman Emporer Augustus, whom he sculptured once. As he becomes more and more obsessed with what he thinks is a stomach tumor (a doctor confirms it's just a case of bad gas...and egotism), his wife feels more and more distanced, and finds herself succumbing to the flirting of one of Kracklite's collegues, Caspasian (Lambert Wilson).

The film was directed by Peter Greenaway, one of the most controversial and overall intriguing directors working today (he's directed such films as the NC-17 "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover," "Prospero's Books," and "The Pillow Book"). Greenaway's a director much more interested in themes and creating certain sensual moods than really really telling a story, and here he blows us away with some truly gorgeous shots of Rome and its many sculptures (photographed beautifully by his usual D.P, Sacha Vierny), and overwhelms us with some truly cinematic moments, most notably a scene where Kracklite discovers a colleague of his has been secretly taking photographs of him when he didn't think he was being photographed, and a scene where he watches his wife sleep witih Caspasian.

Of course, there's the themes that Greenaway is aiming at, like the way that artists are often too influenced and consumed by what came before, shown in the way that many of the things that happen to Kracklite were things that happened to Boulee. But he also shows the other side of this, exploring how sometimes artists TRY and be like other artists, shown in some of the ways that Kracklite actually takes steps to make sure that what happens to him is what happened to others before him. The way that these two play with one another is obviously the thing that Greenaway is playing with here, and after awhile, we're not sure if it's one or the other or both that is coming into play in this film.

And we get to see another one of Greenaway's odd fascinations, things that he brings into perspective and concentrates on that no one else really finds interesting but him...until, of course, they see his movies. In "Prosero's Books," it was those damn books; in "The Pillow Book," it was the fetish of writing calligraphy on bare flesh; in "The Belly of an Architect," it's, well, the belly. We see Kracklite come up with a really big fascination with his belly, which he thinks is being eaten away from the inside by a nasty tumor, a fascination that makes him go as far as xeroxing pictures of the bellies of various statues in Rome, and then, um, hold them up to his own belly. Seeing his room adorned with pictures of stomachs is one of the weirdest, oddest images I've seen in my short lifespan.

Of course, there are a bunch of problems which pull this down from what it really wants to be. One of the things Greenaway is best at is bringing about his themes without actually mentioning them, leaving everything up to the imagination. This film blatantly tells us everything we need to know, having the characters actually dicuss the themes. This makes everything seem much more bland than it actually is, and since there's nothing really fascinating to watch after the themes have been stated, the film seems to really, really drag.

It also doesn't help that this film is way too fable-like - everything anyone does is so that Greenaway can bring out his themes. This makes everything seem so less poetic, especially that ending, which instead of being disturbing or somber merely comes off as being contrived. I have no problem with fables, but when they come off like this, it undermines everything a whole lot than it really should have.

But there's really more to reccomend than to dislike here, even if the film comes off as way too pretentious for its own good. The one thing that really makes it worth viewing is the performance of Brian Dennehy as Kracklite, who brings so much life to his role as well as so much humanity that you can't help but feel bad for him as he takes a nasty descent into madness. The film is actually a lot like a one-man show: everyone is merely there as a supporting role for him, and almost every scene features Dennehy either talking with people, or by himself, sometimes even writing bizarre letters to the long-dead Boulee, confessing his deepest thoughts. Dennehy's such a good actor and makes everything seems so real that he gives the only real human feel to the film, and makes it seem a lot better than it really is.

    MY RATING (out of 4): ***

Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/

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