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

Peter Greenaway

Figure 1. Film Poster

Peter Greenways The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is romantic crime drama, filled with violence, nudity and impressive cinematography for its time, Michael Gambon does well to sell his the obnoxious gangster, Albert Spica. The story is about an affair happening right under his nose, and when Spica hears news of this he goes on a destructive search to find the man who had been sleeping with his wife, the story comes with it little surprises, and with a satisfying ending Greenaway wasnt too far away from a perfect film. The whole of the film, mostly the beginning; is like watching a theatre production, environments are accurately designed, everything thats in each scene is built accurately and remains the same throughout the film, apart from lighting which changes as the situation requires it, the 5 location the viewers are shown remain the same. The director works with space results very attractive from an architects point of view (Portilla, 2012), the buildings in the film arent real buildings but they are designed like they are and the use of wide open space and wide shots taken in the film are done to show this off, architecturally it works; the viewer watches the character go from room to room as they linking every shot together, it gives the viewer a whole different perspective, just like a fly on the wall looking into a world they are uninvited to.

Figure 2. Toilet scene

The use of red throughout this film is symbolic of its theme, there is a lot of violence, betrayal and lust going on in this film and red is an intense colour that can suggest this. When Spicas wife meets the stranger she has an affair with, she first goes to the toilet which is empty and is white, but as she opens the door to step out the purity of the toilet is stained with the red glow of the corridor, and In a way the director uses the environment and lighting to constantly remind and hint to the viewer what is about to happen.

Plenty can view this film as perfect although it isnt universally understood as a classic, but what critics can agree on is that, this film is nothing less than artistic. There have been many theories as to what the true meaning of the film is, many have looked at it as a political message illustrating Margret thatchers rule; describing the Thief as Thatcherite ignorance, The Wife as Britain, The Cook as the civil servants and the Lover as the political opposition. Colour, music, and the well-designed environments are all features that work well together to create the enigma that is the thief, the wife and her lover, every location has a meaning or a purpose and as there are only five locations the audience arent being made to feel like they are going through repetitive sets due to the lighting, the blue car-park seems both menacingly chaotic and free of the suffocating luxury of the restaurant (Goldsmith, 2010), the characters and their emotion are reflected in the scenes, music is used to emphasize this and though Goldsmith talks about how the car park felt the way it did in his review, it wouldnt have felt that way if the characters werent in it, Greenway is able to merge the character with the environment in this film, similar to a technique used in theatres; with all the music, colours and set design, the film might sound like anarchy and very distracting from the main focus, but all these features enhance the experience and creates a very theatrical movie, which is very hard to forget. The film is a visual pleasure to watch, and with the tracking shots following the character as the go across the lavishly wide open scenic room everything is suggestive of violence, lust, and deceit; thats why its very interesting to see Gleiberman describe the film as because visually the viewer is reminded of violence and with the loud mouth Mr. Spica viewers arent allowed to forget it, constantly threating his group of thugs, and harassing his wife, the film doesnt seem to hide any violence at least it appear to supress, though Gleiberman describes the environment as suppressed violence, the environment pushes violence in most scenes involving Mr. Spica, which is most of the film. Inside the restaurant, where Mr Spica eats his meals, theres a painting created by Frans Hals which depicts a Banquet of officers of the St. George Civic Guard, and its little attention to details like this that make the more film interesting or confused, depending on the viewers point of view; the painting in particular is of Officers at a Banquet but whats unusual about this painting is that the people being painted are aware of the viewer, they dont all seem to be frozen still in one position and the painter seems to have captures the characters movement and personality. The painting could be a political message, but on the other hand it could also be representative of the directors style; Greenways film seems like it was made with a theatre adaption in mind, Its has a very theatrical feeling and in theatres the actors are very aware of the viewers and this could have been a little message to observant viewer, Nevertheless Greenaway films are very interesting and theres always

a message, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is no exception to this and is an example of a film that is truly art.

Figure 3. Banquet of officers

Bibliography Illustrations Figure 1: http://www.moviepostershop.com/the-cook-thief-his-wifeand-her-lover-movie-poster-1990 Figure 2: http://www.artble.com/artists/frans_hals/paintings/banquet_of_the_of ficers_of_the_st_george_civic_guard Figure 3: http://isacska.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/visual-project-6the-cook-the-thief-his-wife-and-her-lover/ Quotes Portilla, D. (2012) the director works with space results very attractive from an architects point of view. In: archdaily [online] http://www.archdaily.com/283954/films-architecture-the-cook-thethief-his-wife-her-lover/ (Accessed on 09/12/12) Goldsmith. L. (2010) the blue car-park seems both menacingly chaotic and free of the suffocating luxury of the restaurant, In: NotComing [online] http://notcoming.com/reviews/cookthiefwifelover (Accessed on 09/12/12) Gleiberman, O. (1990) extravagantly repellent atmosphere of suppressed violence. In: ew [online] http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,317115,00.html (Accessed on 09/12/12)