The Draughtsman's Contract Page #9
- R
- Year:
- 1982
- 108 min
- 1,921 Views
respectful reason to visit a lady.
Even one you've had the pleasure of.
Is it really myself that is the centre
of your interest and not my daughter?
Yes, Madam.
How's that?
My former contractual obligations...
...tied us together to my advantage,
and at your husband's death...
...it was again I who
gained and you who lost.
Very confident of that, Mr. Neville.
I must confess that in losing...
...you have excited
my curiosity further.
How do you imagine my losses...
...Mr. Neville?
Humiliations, Madam.
Each one exceeding the other.
Is losing a husband a humiliation...
...Mr. Neville?
In making my arrangements here...
...I concluded with the
possibility of 13 sites...
...one of which had to be
rejected to comply...
...with the 12 drawings
as commissioned.
The site that was rejected was...
...as you will recall,
to the south of the house...
...and included the
monument to the horse.
It is the site where
your husband's body was found.
It was that irony that was
uppermost in enquiring minds...
...at the discovery
of Mr. Herbert's body.
The thirteenth site was rejected...
...for no clear reason.
It contained no view of the house...
...then that was true of
several other of the drawings.
It was the least characteristic of
the garden's viewpoints...
...and was most powerful at the
least advantageous times of day.
And that is why,
with your permission...
...I would like, if I may...
...to attempt to accomplish
that drawing this afternoon.
That is, if you have no objection.
Mr. Neville...
...your approach is full
of hesitant pleasantries.
That is because I am
still unable to fully judge...
...your present
feelings as to past events.
Mr. Neville, suffice it to say that
the object of my life has changed.
I am a widow whereas I was a wife.
was a widow whilst being a wife.
I've only exchanged a false
position that made me unhappy for...
...a true position...
...that has left me
without any emotion.
Mr. Neville, I propose to eat...
...and I propose that
you should eat with me.
When we are ready...
...I will show, along with
my gardener, Mr. Porringer...
...what we at Anstey
are capable of cultivating.
It will be by way of
returning your gift in kind.
And, who knows? It may
be that we could revive...
...one more time...
...a liaison,
outside of a contract...
...to our mutual satisfaction.
Then you must accomplish
your thirteenth drawing.
Is all that acceptable to you?
It is as if you'd planed it.
I'm surprised...
...delighted.
I am overwhelmed.
Mr. Neville, I will take
all three states...
...of your satisfaction
into consideration.
I have...
...quite legitimately,
a freedom to exploit...
...and I might as well
exploit it with you...
...considering our past experience.
A pomegranate, Mr. Neville.
Gift of Hades to Persephone.
My scholarship is not profound.
Unusual of you, Mr. Neville...
...to profess to an ignorance of
have us believe was an essential...
...prerequisite to
an artist's vocabulary.
Maybe I am hesitating to
acknowledge an unintended allusion.
By eating the fruit
of the pomegranate...
...Pluto kept Persephone
in the Underworld.
A symbolic fruit, Mrs. Herbert.
And you've brought me three.
That was all that Mr.
Maybe Mr. Clancy is a
contriver of allusions.
How is that Mrs. Herbert?
Are you acquainted with the man?
Having been tricked into
eating the fruit of the pomegranate...
...Persephone was forced to spend
a period of each year underground.
During which time, as even
Mr. Porringer will tell you...
...Persephone's mother,
the goddess of fields...
...of gardens and of orchards...
...was distraught, heart-broken.
She sulks...
...and she refuses,
adamantly refuses...
...to bless the
world with fruitfulness.
Mr. Porringer and...
...your Mr. Clancy try hard...
...to defeat the influence
of the pomegranate...
...by building places like these.
Don't you think?
And having built them and stocked
them and patiently tended them.
What do they grow?
Why, the pomegranate?
And we are turned full circle again.
Certainly a cautionary
tale for gardeners.
And for mothers with
daughters, Mr. Neville.
Who knows?
Pomegranates grown in England...
...might not have such
unhappy allegorical significance.
Plants from the hot-house, according
to Mr. Porringer, are seldom fertile.
Fertile enough, Mrs. Talmann...
...to engender felicitous allusions
if not their own offspring.
And, of course, there are more.
More of what?
We well know your
delight in the visual conceit.
The juice of the pomegranate...
...may be taken for...
...blood...
...and in particular
the blood of the new born...
...and of murder.
Then thanks to your
botanical scholarship...
...you must find it cruelly apt that I
was persuaded to bring such fruit.
Mr. Neville...
...I suspected you were
innocent in the insight...
...as you have been
innocent of much else.
Innocent, Madam?
By impute I was convinced
you thought me guilty...
...certainly of opportunism.
Probably of murder.
What I do think you guilty of...
...I do not at all reproach you for.
In our need of an heir...
...you may very
likely have served us well.
Madam?
We had a contract, did we not?
You do not think I
would have signed so much...
...for pleasures alone?
Madam...
...that was ingenious.
No.
Since when has
adultery been ingenious?
Mr. Neville you are ridiculous.
And why should you
have murdered Mr. Herbert?
For what reason?
Mr. Talmann believes
I had reason enough.
Yes, Mr. Talmann is in Southampton...
...still trying to find or invent...
...some responsibility for
you in the matter.
He will not forgive
your indiscretion with Sarah.
But he won't disown
his wife, for then...
...he would lose Anstey.
I am sure that Mr. Talmann
is not in Southampton...
...for did I not see him on the
carriage drive here this afternoon.
I think not.
He is in Southampton,
with Mr. Seymour.
I do not think that Mr. Seymour
can be in Southampton.
For he stopped my servant this
morning at Radstock to ask after me.
And on the understanding that
I had some hope of seeing you...
...was according to my
servant, more than pleased.
I am convinced that we
will see him this afternoon.
I confess I am surprised
if that is the case.
I will enquire.
Sarah...
...ask Mr. Porringer to
get Mr. Neville a chair.
He intends to make a
drawing for me in the garden...
...by that horse.
And, Sarah...
...ask Mr. Porringer to
bring Mr. Neville a pineapple.
A small one, they're sweeter.
You would care to try a
pineapple would you not?
I would be delighted.
Good evening, Mr. Neville.
Good evening, Sir.
And why, Mr. Neville, do
we find you here so late?
Surely the light is now
too poor to see adequately.
That is true. I am finished.
Good.
Perhaps I could see it?
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Submitted on August 05, 2018
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"The Draughtsman's Contract" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Jul 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_draughtsman's_contract_20113>.
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