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the cook the thief his wife and her lover | Year: 1990 Classification: Drama Directed: - Peter Greenaway Actors/Actresses: - Richard Bohringer - Michael Gambon - Helen Mirren This demands a widescreen DVD version I don't get it. Leprechaun 2 is available on DVD, and this isn't. I remember when this was released, it had just gotten a very positive review in the NY Times, and the theater was packed. Well, by the end of the film, there were plenty of empty seats. I've never seen so many people walk out on a movie, or in such a steady flow. It was as though the people who found it distasteful had very different levels of tolerance, or perhaps that the film offered an unusually broad selection of potentially offensive subjects. There were actually people who walked out during the last 10 minutes. Still, there were plenty of viewers who were transfixed by this exquisite film, including me. In fact, I had to go see it again the very next day. I can't remember being quite so affected by any movie. Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon are both very good here, but what really sets this film apart are the stunning, painterly compositions and the lush cinematography (by Sacha Vierny). The brutal violence, the dialogue, the characters and plot all serve as a background to the film's dazzling visual spectacle. This inversion is somewhat typical of Peter Greenaway's films in general, but this is perhaps his masterpiece. In short, I can't imagine a more necessary addition to the DVD canon. Like a Kick in the Gut If this film was a conscious allegory about Margaret Thatcher's England (about the intellectuals & the public going to sleep and all that), it equally well applies to present-day US. Stripped of that possible meaning, it's simply a savage exercise in the trashing of the sensibilities of the art-film audience in the most visceral way possible. Supposedly, Greenaway wondered what it would be like to present a modern-day Jacobean revenge play, but it seems more a movie by a man who was at war with his own sensibilities, as if by doing violence to them he was trying to body-slam both high-society pretentiousness (symbolized here by the obsession with fine food) and have his revenge against those who would pretend to such a station (Albert Spica, the horrendous restauranteur-thief). The beautiful, color-coded images and tableaux, the over-the-top costumes and relentlessly driving Nyman music are entirely overturned by the coarse/eloquent dialogue and action (like just about every Greenaway film). It's a movie whose content attacks its form. But the acting is great. Gambon's Albert Spica is one of the most memorable villains in the movies--the brutal boor. You flinch with apprehension every time the scene switches back to him (although he's onscreen most of the time). You don't know what outrageously offensive thing he'll say next--except that it will be outrageous and offensive. His character is one-dimensional, and so repellent that you eventually try to turn off what he's saying, but this is on purpose. He's one of those people who thinks he can buy or bully his way into respectability and high society because, as Richard the Cook says, "No one else will have you, Mister Spica." So he pillages those in his own restaurant. When his long-suffering wife rebels and has an affair with a bookish man, and Spica takes his revenge on her, he then gets what he deserves and it's the most stomach-turning ending in a movie you will ever see (no wonder NC-17 was practically invented for Greenaway). But it is at once fitting, terrifying, and clever. This movie took sheer guts to make at every stage, but still isn't as disturbing as Greenaway's "The Baby of Macon" which couldn't even find distribution in the US. Great Film; has it aged well? Remember seeing this film when it first came out and loving every aspect about it - from the artistic direction, sets, costumes, music to the story line. Now, more than ten years later, after watching the DVD, I've noticed that the movie isn't as shocking as it was the first time around. I still wish the DVD version had subtitles in order to fully understand the thick, heavy British accent. Still, the movie can be enjoyed without even understanding the dialogue - almost as if it were a Silent movie. <BR>And after ten years the only thing about the movie that looks aged are the trendy costumes that Gaultier designed.<BR>The film's visual imagery continues to be its strongest asset with allusions to the Flemish and Spanish Masters of the Baroque Era Buy The Cook The Thief His Wife And Her Lover at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Cook The Thief His Wife And Her Lover Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Cook The Thief His Wife And Her Lover This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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