Space and Environment: Secret Lairs Film Review

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, 1989

Figure 1 Directed by Peter Greenaway, 'The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover' 1989 is a violent and graphic drama depicting the events within Le Hollendais, a French restaurant owned by Albert Spica, starring Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon. Spica, 'The Thief ', is cruel and sadistic, and keeps himself surrounded by his henchmen and his wife Georgina, who he abuses and humiliates in front of the patrons of his restaurant. Georgina, 'His Wife', sits subdued next to her brutish husband as he gorges himself and fills the restaurant with his endless verbal abuse. One night, she catches the eye of a quiet man, 'The Lover' who is sat in the restaurant reading a book over his meal. The pair begin an affair right under the nose of her husband with the help of the restaurant's chef, 'The Cook'. Night after night the lovers meet between courses until Albert is told of his wife's betrayal and the couple flee to Michael's book warehouse. Along with his gangsters, Spica finds Michael's home and tortures him to death, stuffing him with the pages of his favourite books. In

another gruesome twist, Georgina pleads with the chef to cook her lover's body so she can feed it to her husband. In the film's final sequence, all of the people who Albert has wronged throughout the film, come together to force him to swallow Michael's flesh, before his wife shoots him with his own gun.

Figure 2. The Lover, The Wife and The Thief The film is so imbued with art and artifice that when the camera pans from one set to another, it is obvious that the fourth wall does not exist... These visually stunning, ever-changing scenes could only exist on film, and the artifice is a great part of the work's effectiveness. Mr. Greenaway's stroke of genius is to create a selfconsciously false world peopled with character types who slowly become real enough to evoke pain and sadness. ''The Cook'' works like a sneak attack on an audience allowed to feel safely distant for a time from the film's theatrical surface. (James, 1990) Throughout the film, there is a sense of theatricality and the audience feels as though they are watching actors on a stage rather than a film. This lack of a fourth wall lends itself to the less than ordinary plot, the audience know they are watching something that has been constructed. Another aspect of the film, other than the cinematography and set design, that adds to the stage like feel is the soundtrack. There seems to be a blur between the non-diegetic and diegetic sound, for example in the opening of the film the orchestral score that seems as though is doesn't exist in the world of the film is accompanied by an angelic voice that is revealed to belong to one of the character's within the diegesis. The character's move in time to the music and often move forward within the frame rather than the camera panning in to them. The combination of these elements and the over the top costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier create a very theatrical space.

The color scheme ... broadcasts both mood and metaphor in a combination of obvious and subtle ways: the

blue car-park seems both menacingly chaotic and free of the suffocating luxury of the restaurant; the green kitchen is steamy, vegetable, verdant, and jungle-like; the red restaurant, suggestive of passion and excess, fire and blood; the white toilet seems cold and clinical, its porcelain purity showing up the filth that one might deposit there, but it is also virginal and clean, the site of the lovers first tryst. Beyond the orbit of the restaurant exist other possibilities: the brown and gold of Michaels library hideaway suggest a Garden of Eden, bathed in shimmering chiaroscuro and yet organic. But black is everywhere and inescapable, crowding the corners of the frame with a reminder of mortality like the black food for which Richard charges the most. (Goldsmith, 2010)

The use of colour in the costumes, set design and lighting in the film is bold and rich. Each space has it's own colour palette, red for the dining room, white for the toilets - and having the color of the character's costumes change as they walk from one to another. (Ebert, 1999) Thanks to the bold statement of colour, each of the spaces also has a strong atmosphere like Goldsmith says. An example of colour being used in the light choices made by the production team is in the white bathroom. Although the bathroom seem clean, red light from the restaurant seeps through the doorway. This could represent the wife, who seems disconnected with her life in the opening of the film, being taken over by lust and passion.

Figure 3: Red Room

Figure 4: White Room

The Dutch Golden Age of Painting spanned the 17th century and artist's such Abraham van Beyeren produced work full of rich colours and raw depictions of food and death. Within the restaurant in 'The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover' it is easy to see the resemblance to Dutch art. Dutch paintings Golden Age is a major preoccupation in Greenaways films. (Goldsmith, 2010) The use of colour and graphic images of food reflects the artistic movement.

Figure 5: Still life by Beyeren It is a film that uses the most basic strengths and weaknesses of the human body as a way of giving physical form to the corruption of the human soul. (Ebert, 1999) Adultery, murder and cannibalism are only some of the sins committed by the characters within the film. It is a difficult film to watch, both due to the awful things that the character's do to each other and stylised way in the which the film was created.

Figure 6: Green Room

Illustration List
Figure 1. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover poster 1989 At: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097108/ Figure 2. Still from The Cook, the Theif, His Wife and Her Lover 1989 At: http://www.listal.com/viewimage/4051867h Figure 3. Still from The Cook, the Theif, His Wife and Her Lover 1989 At: http://ishootthepictures.com/2010/11/24/the-cook-the-thief-his-wife-her-lover-1989-recommended-tspdt901/ Figure 4. Still from The Cook, the Theif, His Wife and Her Lover 1989 At: http://isacska.wordpress.com/ Figure 5. Still life painting by Beyeren 1667 At: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stilmous1.jpg Figure 6. Still from The Cook, the Theif, His Wife and Her Lover 1989 At: http://ishootthepictures.com/2010/11/24/the-cook-the-thief-his-wife-her-lover-1989-recommended-tspdt901/

Bibliography
James, C The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) Review/Film: Peter Greenaway's Elegant and Brutal 'Cook' 1990 At: http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review? res=9C0CE4DE1F3DF935A35757C0A966958260&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes Goldsmith, L Review The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 2012 At: http://notcoming.com/reviews/cookthiefwifelover Ebert, R The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 1999 At: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19990101/REVIEWS/901010301