Rating: 
Summary: Great Film; has it aged well?
Review: 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.
And after ten years the only thing about the movie that looks aged are the trendy costumes that Gaultier designed.
The film's visual imagery continues to be its strongest asset with allusions to the Flemish and Spanish Masters of the Baroque Era
Rating: 
Summary: disgusting trash
Review: Yuk! How do I give this a negative 5 star rating?
Rating: 
Summary: Even Worse Than Gummo
Review: I cannot fathom how this horrendous onslaught of depravity masquerading as a film has received such good reviews. There is no plot so I'll sum up what "went on": a classy lady is inexplicably married to a grotesque, low-class criminal, and she goes with him and his gang of thugs nightly to this restaurant that, if I have deciphered the terse grunts serving as exposition correctly, he owns, where he wreaks havoc on the staff and other patrons. The wife endures this for awhile and then decides to have an affair with some guy who also goes there every single night. Throughout the entire film there are gratuitous disgusting images which never ever let up. The characters are like a child's set of Fisher Price dolls: "Nice Guy," "Nice Lady," "Innocent Little Boy," and we are expected to care what happens to them. The villain comes out looking the best because he is the only one who's not a doormat, and the lead actress (Helen Mirren) is completely unsympathetic. They could have stuck a cardboard cut-out in any of her scenes and achieved the same effect. Not only does the whole movie look like gangrene, but the actors are also purposely made unattractive, so the viewer doesn't even have that to chalk up as a redeeming quality. I know it's supposed to be challenging and contraversial and blabla...it fails. The two stars are for Gaultier's costumes. Go buy Un Chien Andalou.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh my goodness!
Review: I went into Peter Greenaway's "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover" with blinders on. I had absolutely no idea what to expect as the movie started, none whatsoever. I slightly suspected the director made "art" films due to a faint recollection of a discussion I saw on a bulletin board years ago, but that was all I could remember. Heck, I thought Uma Thurman was in this film for some reason! Obviously, this was my first experience with Greenaway, a director I have since learned is noted for creating disturbing films designed to upset audiences. I'll bet this masterpiece had arty types fleeing for the doors! Boy, I wish I'd seen this in an art house when it came out. I'm used to seeing films dealing with subject matter far worse than this one, but viewers who spend their time watching pictures about relationships and strolls through a park on a sunny day aren't. Yes, Greenaway's film deals with abhorrent themes expressed in undeniably grotesque forms. Yes, the picture has ugly scenes of violence. Yes, relationships of a decidedly revealing nature play a big part in the plot. What did you expect from a NC-17 rated picture? Don't worry-you can handle it. Actually, you'll probably be glad that you sat through it because this is a marvelous movie. "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover" starts on a particularly memorable note. Big time gangster and thief Albert Spica (Michael Gambon), his wife Georgina (Helen Mirren), and his entourage pull up to the back door of a fancy restaurant run by the fabulous French chef Richard Borst (Richard Bohringer), ready for a night of fine dining and obnoxious behavior. Spica is a notorious brute, a beefy, sadistic thug who enjoys tormenting everyone around him, especially his wife Georgina. Greenaway sets the tone immediately by having a pack of dogs snap and snarl outside the restaurant as Spica presides over the humiliation of an underling. The bad behavior continues inside as Spica and his miscreants throw food, insult the staff and fellow customers, and generally make fools out of themselves. Night after night, Spica and his band of dangerous ruffians return to the restaurant, tormenting Borst and his staff as the restaurant's business drains away. No one, it seems, wants to spend an evening eating next to a guy like Spica. One gentleman seems relatively unbothered by the ruckus a couple of tables over. Michael (Alan Howard), a scholarly looking librarian who always reads a book while he eats, simply ignores Spica's loud theatrics. When he makes eye contact with the gorgeous Georgina, however, sparks fly. Within minutes the two are in the bathroom madly pawing away at each other. The clandestine affair continues night after night, with both Michael and Georgina continually aware that Albert Spica or one of his goons could discover the tryst at any moment. Eventually, the staff of the restaurant plays a part in helping the two lovebirds meet, allowing them to use the nooks and crannies in the cavernous kitchen and deflecting any suspicions posed by Albert. Georgina uses Michael as a respite from her vicious husband, a chance to escape his obnoxious behaviors if even for a few precious minutes. Spica's wife soon finds the strength to flee from Albert, moving in with Michael in his library. The thuggish Albert flies into a rage over his wife's disappearance. It's not that he cares for her in any way (he definitely doesn't), but his massive ego cannot stand the idea of her being with another man. Spica tracks down Michael and has him murdered by stuffing pages from a book about the French Revolution down his throat. The conclusion to the film is one of the most memorable in recent film history. After I watched Greenaway's film, I looked a few things up. Some bright film critics in England see this picture as a critique of the Thatcher years, with Spica standing in for the right wing, Georgina as England, and her lover as the hapless political left. Maybe, but I didn't see any of that in the film. I spent too much time chuckling over the coarse behavior of Spica and his goons-one played by Tim Roth in an early role, by the way-and enjoying the stunning Helen Mirren. She's so beautiful here that your heart aches over the indignities she suffers at the hands of Albert. She's also not afraid to do some daring scenes, a lesson she probably learned from her role in the Tinto Brass and Bob Guccione classic "Caligula," made some ten years before this film. If you still need to a reason to watch the movie, if the political symbolism and charged situations leave you cold, check out the great musical score by Michael Nyman and the sumptuous atmosphere of the restaurant. The colors and décor of the dining establishment take your breath away, and Greenaway further uses color by having people's outfits change hue as they walk from room to room. What does it all mean? Who knows, but it's fun to watch. The DVD version of the film I saw didn't have much in the way of extras besides a trailer and a widescreen picture transfer. No matter, though. The movie is challenging enough to make you forget all about commentaries, stills, and any other of the usual extras. After watching "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover," I would like to see other Peter Greenaway films. Unfortunately, most of them have not received a reissue on DVD. If the subject matter is as disturbing as this film, no wonder! I recommend renting this movie and then inviting some friends over to watch it. Don't tell them anything about it beforehand, though. Just sit back and watch the jaws drop.
Rating: 
Summary: More appropriate for opera buffs
Review: I had to force myself to watch the movie to the end. I didn't understand 90% of the dialogue; the characters spoke some sort of pseudo-Frenglish which I just couldn't decode. I speak English and French well, and I have no problem understanding other movies' dialogs in either language, so I don't think the problem was with my comprehensive abilities here.
The directing draws strongly on opera elements. To me, such archaic opera airs looked, frankly, as silly as the screaming Korean grandpa-narrator in the movie Chunyang, (and it's a classically trained musician saying this). If you have an affinity towards opera, maybe they won't bother you as much.
The essence of art is to convey the most meaning with the least resources. This movie communicated very little to me (beyond the basic story), using a lot of resources - the exact opposite. De Funes and Bunuel, where are you when we need you?
Rating:
Summary: Twisted!
Review: I saw this movie in the theater when it was first released in the US. Talk about serendipity - my father had just passed away and my sister, neice, her husband, nephew, and I were looking for something to do the night before the memorial. Since this was showing, and my niece and her husband are in the movie business (she is an actor, he is a director and screen writer), we all went to see it together. All I can say is, none of us will ever forget that night!
That said, this movie isn't for everyone, but it is brilliantly scripted, filmed, and edited. Definitely one for the archives.
Rating:
Summary: Grotesque but also gorgeous - and wait for a better DVD
Review: If you have not seen this movie already, think twice before buying this DVD. Instead, wait for a showing at a good art theater, or wait for a better DVD version. Greenaway's movie affects viewers by contrasting beauty and horror, but for the effect to work, the images must be crisp and perfectly rendered. This DVD does not preserve movie quality resolution and so the effect is lost. Apart from that, the movie itself is the most memorable I have ever seen. I first saw it in 1990 and remembered almost all of it before viewing it a second time last night.
The production is flawless. Each cast member is matched perfectly to each part: a wry, clever, wise Cook (Bohringer), a violent, unpleasant, loud Thief (Gambon), a suffering quiet Wife (Mirren) and a discrete Lover (Howard). Look also for a young Tim Roth playing his usual delinquent role. The photography is carefully planned, right down to the red water melons with green rinds split open on the cutting table. All the kitchen shots look like masterful 19th century still life paintings. There are interesting visual tricks: the costumes change color as the characters move from the dining room (red) to the kitchen (green).
But be warned, this is not a pleasant movie. The film begins and ends with two unmentionable scenes. The thief insults his wife throughout the movie and it's soon difficult not to cringe at the sight of him. There is spitting and graphic vomiting. Make sure you've eaten some time before seeing this. And don't plan a dinner aftewards; you'll be too dizzy.
Rating:
Summary: Brutal, Grotesque and Great
Review: This is a movie many people either love or hate; and I like it a lot. It's all style, all color, all rage. A thief (Michael Gambon as Albert Spica) and his wife, Georgina (Helen Mirren) with his toadies and gang members dine each night at the restaurant of the cook (Richard Bohringer). Spica is a monster; crude, loud and a bully with the table manners of a hog. The first scene in the movie is Spica, his gang and their women getting out of their cars in a dark, wet alleyway and preparing to enter the restaurant through the kitchen. But first they deal with a guy who owes Spica money. His gang brings Spica dog excrement on pieces of paper; Spica wipes the stuff all over the other guy's face and mouth. They strip him down while the women watch and Spica continues to smear him. He pokes at the cowering man on the ground with his cane, while others kick at him. Then he urinates on him...but chews out a toadie who was going to do the same because the toadie might offend the women. Spica's behavior doesn't get any better. Georgina Spica wears matyrdom like a cloak. Eating every night in the restaurant is a shy, book-loving man (Alan Howard) who ignores the uproar Albert and his gang create. He and Georgina see each other and he becomes her lover, making love everywhere in the restaurant that they can find where it's quiet, with the help of the cook. The thief finds out and deals with the lover. The wife takes her revenge with the complicity of the cook in a grotesque and appropriate way.
Sounds simple enough, but this movie is a powerhouse. The look of the film, like so much of Greenaway's stuff, is lush and highly stylized. The rooms of the restaurant have their own colors and the costumes of the actors change colors as they move from room to room. The kitchen is huge and strange, with boiling kettles, hanging instruments and tables piled high with glassware and dishes; with geese being plucked in clouds of feathers; with fat, half-naked men stirring steaming sauce pans. A white-haired, retarded boy does simple tasks while singing in a counter-tenor.
The movie, I think, seems to be about anger and retribution. Gambon is a powerful as Albert Spica, completely repellant, domineering and absolutely fascinating. Helen Mirren is superb, and one of the bravest actors around. Her humiliation at the hands of her husband just goes on and on. Her scenes of sexual escape with Alan Howard are hardly erotic, but they are explicit and strong.
Greenaway has done a number of films. I think a lot of Prospero's Books (1991) and The Draughtsman's Contract (1982). He's a guy you have to get in the mood for, though. He doesn't make easy films.
Rating:
Summary: Cook Thief Wife Lover
Review: The Cook, as becomes his station, is above it all.
The Thief is a glutton, and a wicked, wicked man.
The Wife is beautiful, bored and abused.
Her Lover likes to read while he eats.
Everything in THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER is larger than life. Sets are huge, colors are garish, the loud bad guy is very loud, and very bad, indeed. Although Michael Gambon gives an appropriately broad reading to his villainous character, the mordant humor of it all creates an irredeemable flaw. Some people will respond to his evil shenanigans with disgust rather than amusement. Still others will find it jarring when the volume is lowered.
Helen Mirren delivers an emotional monologue near the end of the picture that I found curiously unmoving. If felt like a quiet, human moment plopped down in the middle of a broad farce, and the abrupt change of tone created an emotional chasm that I couldn't cross.
CTWL won't appeal to everybody. If you don't connect with its dark, situational humor, its brutality may be a little too much to bear.
Rating:
Summary: You have to be in the mood.
Review: Should you care to be hypnotized and weirded out at the same time, try this genre-hopper. It's a comedy, but it's also gross. It's a thinker, but at some moments, it's also a stinker. Watch this on a rainy afternoon with your favorite sarcastic friend.
|
