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The Belly of an Architect

Play trailer Poster for The Belly of an Architect R 1987 1h 58m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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85% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 80% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
Stourley Kracklite (Brian Dennehy), a driven, detail-obsessed architect, travels from America to Rome with his much younger wife, Louisa (Chloe Webb), to oversee an architectural homage to a personal hero, 18th-century master builder Etienne-Louis Boullée. En route by train, Stourley and Louisa conceive a much-wanted child -- but Stourley's obsession with his wife's expanding belly, her perceived infidelity, and his own recurrent bouts of abdominal pain reach epic and dangerous proportions.
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The Belly of an Architect

Critics Reviews

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Tom Meek Cambridge Day [Brian] Dennehy is outstanding as a man out of his element, and the cinematic rendering of Rome's classic structures is a visual feast. Rated: 3/4 Apr 20, 2020 Full Review Ángel Luis Inurria El Pais (Spain) Presumptuous, cold, and distant. [Full Review in Spanish] Apr 3, 2020 Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com Rated: 4/5 Nov 30, 2007 Full Review Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault Dennehy achieves Brando-esque emotional power. Rated: B+ Apr 9, 2007 Full Review Randy Shulman Metro Weekly (Washington, DC) Rated: 3/5 Jun 30, 2005 Full Review Nick Davis Nick's Flick Picks There's a good deal here to relish, even if the piece as a whole eventually descends into the same hermetic serialism of motifs that has consumed most of Greenaway's pictures. Rated: B Aug 28, 2004 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Absolute masterpiece from Peter Greenaway. A visual feast of style, music and visuals. Not to mention the plot which is very unique and original. The performance of Brian Dennehy is spot on perfect and brings a heightens up the sense of tragedy that permeates the film. Its Peter Greenaway at its best! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/25/23 Full Review Audience Member One of the greatest, the most beautiful and underrated films of all time. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member The thing about this is that, despite good performances, as far as I can see, it's a lot of nothing. Sure, it's more of a character study than linear story, but, even taking this into consideration, it still doesn't deliver anything that I think is really worth watching. There are some good ideas here, but that's all they are - ideas that never come to fruition. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member I'd recommend this movie to the architects... Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member A visually striking tale of obsession with a powerful performance by Dennehy, and the usual sexual flourishes from Greenaway. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/05/23 Full Review Audience Member Peter Greenaway's artistic background reveals itself frame after frame in this taxing tragic drama. However, Greenaway's film isn't half as profound as the Roman legends it strives to revere in its shoddy screenplay. The film charts the neo-classical decline of obsessive architect, Brian Dennehy, mimicking the mopey hypochondria of the very master he's studying. Trouble is, not only is soppy Dennehy hard to take seriously, (with his fuzzy frowns and striking resemblance to Troll 2's Grandpa Seth), but Greenaway's casting-to-character-age ratio is horrendous, and his script is 80% age-gags and adultery. As you can imagine, this combined with atrocious acting is not ideal in a relationship drama which requires complete belief in its characters in order to work. The Belly of An Architect is a pretty picture of a movie; a real pretty picture. But no level of beauty can mask the fact that it features some of the worst flirting and faffing in the history of film. Poop with a painted gold coating; let's hope the lady playing Dennehy's 'much younger' missus was an unpaid intern. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Belly of an Architect

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The Belly of an Architect

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Movie Info

Synopsis Stourley Kracklite (Brian Dennehy), a driven, detail-obsessed architect, travels from America to Rome with his much younger wife, Louisa (Chloe Webb), to oversee an architectural homage to a personal hero, 18th-century master builder Etienne-Louis Boullée. En route by train, Stourley and Louisa conceive a much-wanted child -- but Stourley's obsession with his wife's expanding belly, her perceived infidelity, and his own recurrent bouts of abdominal pain reach epic and dangerous proportions.
Director
Peter Greenaway
Rating
R
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 23, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA)
$6.3K
Runtime
1h 58m
Sound Mix
Surround
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