Film: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

Genre: Drama, Romance, Art House & International, Comedy

Peter Greenaway's next film after Drowning by Numbers is this more accessible offering about sex, lust, food, gluttony, murder and revenge. It's a controversial film and has a NC-17 rating in the US. The film opens with a vulgar scatological scene, when a man is smeared with excrement by 'The Thief', Albert Spica. Most of the film is set in an elegant gourmet restaurant called Le Hollandais. Spica dines at this restaurant frequently, along with his gorgeous wife Georgina (played by solemnly sexy Helen Mirren) and his group of uncouth associates.

Spica is a vulgarian, who growls his orders towards those around him. Georgina then becomes fixated with a customer in the restaurant (Alan Howard) and the two of them have a dangerous sexual affair there. Eventually, Spica discovers their liaison, and the film draws to its memorable and shocking conclusion, which is the ultimate retribution. Sumptuous to look like at and superbly performed.

"This isn't a freak show; it's a deliberate and thoughtful film in which the characters are believable and we care about them." - Roger Ebert ****

http://petergreenaway.org.uk/ctwl.htm

Colour
Colour is a significant, key feature within this film, which is used to encourage the audience to feel different emotions throughout. I myself must say I was encouraged, taken away and greatly influenced by the use of colour palette throughout this film. The main action I would say took place within a bright intensity of red hue; this gave the immediate feeling to me personally of danger, blood red and somewhat heated passion so to speak. Colour changed throughout the film and therefore the mood was change instantly. Within the hospital scenes a white and pale yellow surrounding was used to reflect a calm, clean feeling. Green became a recurring feature too – this communicated a more calmer yet envious feel about the particular scene or character which was being portrayed. The main characters attire seemed too changed magically from one scene into another scenario. I thought this was rather good as I feel it enabled the characters to changed their stance and characteristic through simple colour change quickly and efficiently. I do find the visual impact of the colour palette was used strikingly.



The image above shows the range of colour palette being used in different scenes to depict a different mood throughout the film.