Rating: 
Summary: "She's even more predatory than you are."
Review: The Peter Greenaway film, "The Belly of an Architect" is the story of an American middle-aged architect, Stourley Kracklight (Brian Dennehy) and his much younger wife, Louisa (Chloe Webb). Kracklight is organizing an exhibition in Rome to Etienne Louis Boulee--an 18th Century architect. Kracklight has spent the last ten years of his life planning the exhibit. It would be fair to say that he is obsessed with Boulee--his architectural hero, but once in Rome, Kracklight's obsession with Boulee assumes much darker overtones. In Rome, Kracklight and Louisa are introduced to the predatory brother and sister team, Caspasian and Flavia Speckler. The atmosphere between Caspasian and Kracklight is immediately hostile, and even over a splendid banquet, Caspasian's cutting comments set the tone for Kracklight's fate. There are so many things happening in every Greenaway film, and "The Belly of an Architect" is not an exception to this. Kracklight and Louisa are quintessential Americans and they seem out-of-place amongst the Italians. Louisa, who is half Italian, seems to remember her roots as she begins to pull away from her husband with an increasing sense of dissatisfaction and impatience. In the meantime, Kracklight remains a tourist and even begins writing postcards to his long-dead hero, Boulee. Greenaway's use of the imagery of food is evident throughout the film in the many banquet and restaurant scenes. There is also a subtle undercurrent of the past's influence on the present. Dinner guests are regaled with tales of the emperor Augustus and his much-younger wife, Livia. Tales of death obsess Kracklight, and as his own death becomes imminent, the idea of the legacy of Boulee, and the legacy of the great Roman emperors is in sharp contrast to Kracklight's legacy to his unborn child. I think the powerful scene between Kracklight and his doctor as they walk and discuss several Roman emperors is the most perfect scene in the film. It provides a dreadful symmetry to the film and to life itself. As ever, Sacha Vierny is the cinematographer, and the sets are exquisite. I think I could recognize this cinematographer's work anywhere. His use of colour is quite unique, and Michael Nyman creates an impeccable musical score. I was a bit surprised that Dennehy was selected for this role as he's not Greenaway's usual type, and Dennehy tends to star in some rather mainstream films. But Dennehy was perfect for this role. As Kracklight, Dennehy towers above all the Italians (as he is meant to), and exudes power even as he weakens from disease. There even is imagery of Kracklight as Samson in the temple (one of Boulee's creations) in several scenes. For Greenaway fans, this film is thought-provoking and utterly memorable--displacedhuman
Rating:
Summary: "She's even more predatory than you are."
Review: The Peter Greenaway film, "The Belly of an Architect" is the story of an American middle-aged architect, Stourley Kracklight (Brian Dennehy) and his much younger wife, Louisa (Chloe Webb). Kracklight is organizing an exhibition in Rome to Etienne Louis Boulee--an 18th Century architect. Kracklight has spent the last ten years of his life planning the exhibit. It would be fair to say that he is obsessed with Boulee--his architectural hero, but once in Rome, Kracklight's obsession with Boulee assumes much darker overtones. In Rome, Kracklight and Louisa are introduced to the predatory brother and sister team, Caspasian and Flavia Speckler. The atmosphere between Caspasian and Kracklight is immediately hostile, and even over a splendid banquet, Caspasian's cutting comments set the tone for Kracklight's fate. There are so many things happening in every Greenaway film, and "The Belly of an Architect" is not an exception to this. Kracklight and Louisa are quintessential Americans and they seem out-of-place amongst the Italians. Louisa, who is half Italian, seems to remember her roots as she begins to pull away from her husband with an increasing sense of dissatisfaction and impatience. In the meantime, Kracklight remains a tourist and even begins writing postcards to his long-dead hero, Boulee. Greenaway's use of the imagery of food is evident throughout the film in the many banquet and restaurant scenes. There is also a subtle undercurrent of the past's influence on the present. Dinner guests are regaled with tales of the emperor Augustus and his much-younger wife, Livia. Tales of death obsess Kracklight, and as his own death becomes imminent, the idea of the legacy of Boulee, and the legacy of the great Roman emperors is in sharp contrast to Kracklight's legacy to his unborn child. I think the powerful scene between Kracklight and his doctor as they walk and discuss several Roman emperors is the most perfect scene in the film. It provides a dreadful symmetry to the film and to life itself. As ever, Sacha Vierny is the cinematographer, and the sets are exquisite. I think I could recognize this cinematographer's work anywhere. His use of colour is quite unique, and Michael Nyman creates an impeccable musical score. I was a bit surprised that Dennehy was selected for this role as he's not Greenaway's usual type, and Dennehy tends to star in some rather mainstream films. But Dennehy was perfect for this role. As Kracklight, Dennehy towers above all the Italians (as he is meant to), and exudes power even as he weakens from disease. There even is imagery of Kracklight as Samson in the temple (one of Boulee's creations) in several scenes. For Greenaway fans, this film is thought-provoking and utterly memorable--displacedhuman
Rating: 
Summary: Rewind asap
Review: This movie is a pretentious bore. If you want to see Brian's unclothed gut, this obscure drama is for you. Watching Chloe Webb pretend to act is excruciating. If you dislike this movie after the first fifteen minutes, rewind. It doesn't get any better.
Rating:
Summary: Rewind asap
Review: This movie is a pretentious bore. If you want to see Brian's unclothed gut, this obscure drama is for you. Watching Chloe Webb pretend to act is excruciating. If you dislike this movie after the first fifteen minutes, rewind. It doesn't get any better.
Rating: 
Summary: Dennehy fans don't have permission to miss this
Review: This was made a few years before "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover," which remains Peter Greenaway's best-known film. Not as many people know about this one. Brian Dennehy, that hardworking character actor and veteran of many thrillers, finally got a shot at art-house cred in this stubbornly interiorized drama. Dennehy is Stourley Kracklite, an American architect in Rome supervising the exhibition of the classical architect he idolizes. When he learns that his idol had stomach ailments much like his own, he becomes convinced that his straying, younger wife (Chloe Webb) is poisoning him. Stomachs become a fixation for him (and for us; after a while, our eyes automatically travel to characters' tummies), and he gets sicker and more paranoid as his wife, unborn child and career slip away from him. Even in the shallowest roles, Dennehy has been a burly force of nature; here, in a showboat artist role Hemingway could've written, Dennehy, with his white beard and Homeric shoulders, is about the only actor who could be posed between classical Roman statues (as cinematographer Sacha Vierny often frames him) without looking like a nerd. You knew he was physically powerful, but in this movie Dennehy achieves Brando-esque emotional power. The film itself is another Peter Greenaway number, full of art-major allusions, but that great bull Dennehy takes the snob curse off it. Greenaway wisely puts him in almost every frame - the better, perhaps, to appreciate him as art.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a pretty sight
Review: Whether you come to this flick because you admire architecture, dig Peter Greenaway, or love Rome (all of which I do), The Belly of an ARchitect will leave a bitter taste - and not just because the architect in question is suffering from a pain in the gut that makes him spew up nasty bile every now and then.
The script is a mess. What might have been an interesting conceit is tangled up in nonsense. All the Italians are corrupt (why they seem to conspire against the hapless American is never clear; if it's merely thievery, why are they so obvious?), the architect's wife is a bit dim, the architect an arrogant American without the sense to ask for an audit when his precious exhibition is being ripped off. But he must be some kind of magician: he can make photo copies even when placing the original right side up on the glass ...
Greenaway has managed to acquire amazing locations (the Victor Emaneul Memorial, Baths of Caracalla, Pantheon) and one wishes he had filled them with a compelling story; but pretty pictures don't make a movie, and this quasi-operatic tale doesn't wash. For all the talk of meat and blood, this one is as cold as cadaver.
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