The film that made director Peter Greenaway’s name receives a spectacular remaster from the BFI National Archive to celebrate 40 years since its original release. Newly upgraded from the original 16mm negative to radiant 4K, Greeenaway’s dizzingly unique tale of sex and power in 17th-century England has never looked or sounded better.

Wiltshire, 1694, and Virginia Herbert (Janet Suzman), the rich wife of an absent country squire, engages the services of one Mr Neville (Anthony Higgins) to make 12 drawings of her grand country estate. Neville insists that his agreement with Herbert includes not just financial compensation but sexual favours. But when a corpse is fished from the Herberts’ moat, the draughtsman gets more than his contract bargained for. Extravagant costumes, acidic dialogue and a pulsating score by Michael Nyman helps propel this singular murder mystery – a landmark in modern British cinema.