rating:
(out of
4 stars)France; 1989
Directed by Peter Greenaway; produced by Kees Kasander; written by Peter Greenaway
Starring Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard, Tim Roth, Ciarán Hinds
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
The main character does not speak for the first half an hour and after an
hour observes that he once saw a film where the main character did not speak
for the first half an hour. 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover' is
that kind of film. It plays (mainly) on one location, but in four different
parts of that location: a French restaurant called "La Hollandaise" which is
divided in the outside, the kitchen, the dining room and the bathroom. Each
place has its own colour, with a blue outside, green kitchen, red dining
room and white/pink bathroom. The clothing of some of the other main
characters, most obviously that of the female lead (Helen Mirren), changes
along when they enter another place.
Helen Mirren is of course His Wife, named Georgina. She is married to The
Thief (Michael Gambon) who owns the restaurant and treats everyone including
his wife, the customers, the crooks around him (one played by Tim Roth) and
The Cook (Richard Bohringer) with the help of violence. Under his nose,
inside the restaurant, his wife is having an affair with Michael (Alan
Howard), which of course makes him Her Lover. The title is pretty accurate
in defining its characters. Whenever The Thief, named Albert, is on screen
he talks. Gambon portrays this man as truly disgusting with a very powerful
performance.
The film is filled with violence, sex and food, with disgusting and
disturbing images, but it is always visually interesting. Production
designers Ben van Os ('Girl with a Pearl Earring') and Jan Roelfs ('World
Trade Center') did a terrific job keeping this kind of images still a feast
for the eye. As a political statement this film is pretty interesting as
well, the four characters from the title being metaphors in a society (the
film was made during Thatcher in Brittain). The symbolic images are not that
hard to understand. But those interesting images do not make a movie that is
nice to watch as a whole.
Director Peter Greenaway has made a fascinating film and a political
statement at the same time. The production values, the acting, everything is
terrific, but this was the first and last time I saw 'The Cook, the Thief,
His Wife & Her Lover'. That said, I do recommend you to see it once.