Belly of An Architect -- Peter Greenaway (1987)

Kraklite, an American architect is in Italy to arrange an exhibit for Boullee, a French architect. This anomaly seems central to the plot as Kraklite is drawn in by the architectural epicenter of the western world but simultaneously drawn away from the Roman people. Internalizing his sentiments, romanticism, aesthetics more and more towards an heroic archetype of Boullee and even writing to him for council. As an Italian involved in the exhibition attempts to attain the affection of Kraklite's wife and thwart his vision he becomes even more introverted. Much time is spent describing the ailments of dead ancient Italian artists. One of which, the story of Augustus, being poisoned by his wife seems to have an effect on Kraklite. He draws allegorical connections between stomach pains he's having with story of Augustus (thinking his wife may be poisoning him), the eventual birth of his child (conceived while entering Italy, making it in some sense Italian), and classical statuesque images of men with muscular abdomens. Eventually he realizes he has developed stomach cancer, has a limited time to live, and has been usurped of his exhibition. He thinks himself some sort of martyr of artistic humanity as he yells to the Roman people 'Jesus Christ would have died of stomach cancer if you people hadn't crucified him first'. This all culminates to a scene with his suicide simultaneous with the birth of his son at the opening of the exhibit. The final scene shows Kraklite's son staring at a spinning top which symbolized Newton, a person Boullee had greatly admired to show his son carrying out his significance. If not the one of the best movies I've ever seen it certainly is the most artistically beautiful. A testament to how confused I must be is that this movie has an IMDB rating of 6.7 while 'Shawshank Redemption' has a rating of 9.2.

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