The architect's belly

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Movie
German title The architect's belly
Original title The Belly of an Architect
Country of production Italy ,
United Kingdom
original language English
Publishing year 1987
length 114 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Peter Greenaway
script Peter Greenaway
production Colin Callender , Walter Donohue
music Wim Mertens , Glenn Branca
camera Sacha Vierny
cut John Wilson
occupation

The Belly of an Architect (The Belly of an Architect) is a film by director Peter Greenaway from 1987, who also wrote the screenplay.

action

The film is about the physical and social ruin of the architect Stourley Kracklite. He is to conceive an exhibition in Rome about the classical architect Étienne-Louis Boullée , with whom Kracklite has been concerned for years and whose “ Cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton ” is a central motif of the film.

In Italy, Kracklite is increasingly suffering from inexplicable abdominal pain that heralds fatal stomach cancer. In it Kracklite sees an analogy to the death of Boullée and other historical personalities, whereby he in the meantime also suspects his wife Louisa of poisoning. He is becoming increasingly self-centered while Louisa is cheating on him with his Italian colleague Caspasian Speckler, who also wants to gain control of the exhibition. Speckler finally succeeds in doing this through the increasing psychological strain on Kracklite, which is why his Italian colleagues have increasing doubts about his suitability and withdraw responsibility for the project from him. In addition, Kracklite is abandoned by his wife Louisa, who is pregnant by him and who has decided in favor of her Italian lover shortly before giving birth.

At the opening of the exhibition, Kracklite's presence is only desired for publicity. However, since he secretly sneaks into the event, this part is left to his heavily pregnant wife. She finally collapses while Kracklite leaps backwards out of a window.

Boullée: cenotaph for Sir Isaac Newton

criticism

  • film-dienst : The story is just a pretext for a bizarre intellectual guessing game about architecture, numbers and word games, about time and age. The result is a witty, impressively staged journey into aesthetic systems from cultural history and human myths.

Awards

  • The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 1987.
  • The German Film and Media Evaluation FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the title valuable.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Approval certificate for Der Bauch des Architekten . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , July 2005 (PDF; test number: 58 603 DVD).