The Belly of an Architect (1987)

An architect supervising an exhibition starts to have mysterious stomach pains while his life slowly falls apart.

Director:

Peter Greenaway

Writer:

Peter Greenaway

Stars:

Brian Dennehy, Chloe Webb, Lambert Wilson

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Brian Dennehy	...	Stourley Kracklite
Chloe Webb	...	Louisa Kracklite
Lambert Wilson	...	Caspasian Speckler
Sergio Fantoni	...	Io Speckler
Stefania Casini	...	Flavia Speckler
Vanni Corbellini	...	Frederico
Alfredo Varelli	...	Julio
Geoffrey Copleston	...	Caspetti
Francesco Carnelutti	...	Pastarri
Marino Masé	...	Trettorio
Marne Maitland	...	Battistino
Claudio Spadaro	...	Mori
Rate Furlan	...	Violinist
Julian Jenkins	...	Old Doctor
Enrica Maria Scrivano	...	Mother

Storyline

An American architect arrives in Italy, supervising an exhibition for a French architect, Boullée, who is famous for his oval structures. Through the course of 9 months he becomes obsessed with his belly, suffers severe stomach pains, loses his wife, exhibition, his unborn child and finally his own life.

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Plot Keywords:

italy | downward spiral | architect | stomach | british renaissance | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

UK Italy

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

16 October 1987 (UK)

Also Known As:

Arkitektens mage

Filming Locations:

Aurelian Walls, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Box Office

Gross USA:

$287,725

Company Credits

Production Co:

Callender Company, Mondial, Tangram Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

the sound track is one of the best albums of Wim Mertens. Mertens is best known for his opus "Struggle for Pleasure".

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Goofs

When photocopying the picture of Augustus, Kracklite puts the picture in upside down which would have given a blank copy (unless the same picture was on both sides). Additionally, it would not be possible to achieve the level of resolution of Augustus' abdomen from such a small picture.

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Quotes

Stourley Kracklite: All fascists are meat-eaters.

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Connections

Referenced in Peter Greenaway in Indianapolis (1997)

User Reviews

Excellent

I only can say that Brian Dennehy is not the typical Greenaway actor, but Greenaway gets to work with him in order to take him to the summit of his work. It is over the fat policeman bored of what he does, alcoholic, disenchanted... Here, the American Architect, his wife, the exhibition, the Italian rival, everything is planned, and Greenway's work with actors gets the best performance Brian could ever have dreamt about. Besides, Peter Greenaway has made his masterpiece with this film in my opinion. I saw it for the first time when I was 16 (now, I'm 33) and I got truly impressed, thinking it was the best movie I had seen in my whole life. That is not much to say. Now, at 33, every time I see it I think the very same thing. Enjoy Greenaway's masterpiece!