peter greenaway's 'the cook, the thief, his wife and her lover'

wow, really and truly wow. an astonishing film. i just finished watching it at about 2am, i've never seen anything quite like it before. true it did have a few similarities in style to some of my other favourite directors, namely terry gilliam and jeunet & caro, but this, a really unique film. i happen to be a fan of michael gambon which is one of the reasons why i watched this film, that and i always saw it sitting in hmv begging to be bought, i just never got round to buying it until now, and i'm glad i have.

right the basic outline. the four people mentioned in the title sum up the main characters, everyone else is minor in contrast to them. the cook in question is called richard borscht, the head chef and owner of an extremely posh and respectable restaurant. the thief is the main baddy who you will come to hate within five minutes of seeing him on screen, all typical inhibitions of a typical human being missing from him. his wife is helen mirren, known as georgina or 'georgie' in the film. a woman who you can only really feel pity for throughout. her lover is michael, a book shop owner who eats in the same restaurant every night.

a quick side note, i hate characters with the same christian name as me, when they're names are talked within films it has a strange effect on me, it makes me oddly uncomfortable. anyway that's got nowt to do with the film.

the mise-en-scene. this is where the similarity with the two directors comes from; a strong use of lighting, mainly in this film green and red, vast over sized locations, i wouldn't go so far as to say it makes it look studio because that would be comparing it to the fucking dreadful 'john carpenters dracula', a mise-en-scene so tacky looking it rendered the film un-watchable to me. there's also a hefty use of steam and smoke in the film. whenever the film wanders outside, which isn't often since most of the film takes place in the restaurant and kitchen, steam flows down the streets, along with rags from construction material, plastic trash and general bric-a-brac. and of course the kitchen is full of steaming and smoking pots and pans. the overall feeling you get from the film is one of two, either a dystopic near distant future, or a uchronian where the financial gap between poor and ultra-rich has increased drastically. the look of the vehicles and even the clothing (which is suprisingly designed by jean paul gautier , which suggest this film had a larger budget than i thought) leans more to the the latter. although in fairness this film could be said to be set in an undetermined time frame.

clothing. since it was designed by an internationally famous fashion designer i feel it's only fair to mention it. first off there was a little trick greenaway used which at first i didn't catch onto. the two main characters, helen mirren who plays georgie and michael gambon, spicar wear expensive clothing which is affected by the light more than any other character. what i mean by this is that whilst in the restaurant where everything is coated in a red light their clothes are of course red. their clothes are actually white but the light itself changes the colour. when they move into the kitchen the clothes instead become green, outside blue and in one short scene in a hospital, yellow.the thing is you can see their clothes haven't actually changed colour because of the light, but in fact each time they change from location to location they're redressed in the correct colour clothes. a clever idea which does serve a purpose, if you're prepared to read into it.

whenever they are in the restaurant the clothes are primarily black and red. black, the colour of death and darkness, which is in-fact discussed by 'the cook' later in the film when he explains he prices food according to colour and chemical attributes. red, the colour of passion and anger. michael gambon's character is a fantastically angry character, always arguing with his associates or verbally and physically attacking his wife and diners. black, well that becomes more apparent later on. but also the red denotes passion as that's where the love affair between 'the wife' and 'her lover' begins, on the restaurant floor. green, according to colour theory, is the colour of envy. it's also the colour of health, greed and in some cultures, the colour of evil. but mainly in this film it's used for jealousy. i won't explain, the film makes that apparent.

the lighting in the film is awesome as well. there are tons of shadows thrown into corners of faces, rooms etc. with the other shades of colour majorly taken up by the location. lighting on faces on the close ups typically comes from the ground up, revealing all the shades and highlights on the face, the most notable case of this is when michael gambon gets 'slightly' ticked off with his wife. the camera work is intriguing as well. when going from room to room the camera always pans across, fading through the walls to allow it to progress into the next area. also whenever we go from new day to new day (it takes place over a week) the camera usually starts in the kitchen where we see the food being prepared, pans right across it and then into the restaurant where it finally finishes on 'the thiefs' table. the camera work throughout is stable and usually from a distance, which is why we gain such a vast scale of the locations.

'the cook...' is certainly a violent film, it's not constant but you're always expecting it to come out of nowhere, if that makes any sense. it's certainly got nudity in it as well, then again what did you expect from helen mirren? she somehow manages to spend about half the film in the nuddy despite most of it being in a restaurant. if you're not into gore or anything remotely shocking i wouldn't suggest this film to you, the two torture scenes in the film are certainly grotesque in their execution.

acting. damn good throughout, you can see 'the lover' thinks 'the thief' a fool from the way he responds to him through smiles and straight-to-the-point sentences. michael gambon certainly enjoys his role as complete bastard and plays it with relish, you can see how much he is enjoying himself. despite being completely nasty and truly despicable he still doesn't beat 'bill' in 'dancer in the dark' as biggest film cunt, he comes close though. but this is mainly because being a git seems to be intrisinc to michael gambon's character, whereas bill does it all of a sudden in a one time chance, plus the situation surrounding the event helps to increase the level of bastardness. there's a great sound bite in the film where helen mirren is inbetween laughing, crying and ranting like a lunatic, one of the best such 'laughs' in a film, it really did freak me out.

the dialogue is great as well. since it's all set in a eating establishment most of the conversation is focused around food, with the candid talks 'the thief' has about 'his wife' being disgusting without actually having to use any extremely rude words, context is enough. the romantic drivvle between 'the wife' and 'her lover' is always enjoyable. never talking about romance in a typical way, but more comparing it to other things, such as watching a film.

it's safe to say this is a unique film which won't suit everyone's pallet (excuse the pun), but if you're willing to give it a try, you will enjoy it.

lee chang dong's 'oasis'

after coming back from skorea i was given a trilogy of dvds from my seoul friend. i'd never heard of the director before but my friend said he's really good, and since she has a great taste in films (by which i snobbishly mean she likes the same as me) i trusted her taste. she was going to grab me a copy of the new park woo-chan film as well but sadly it was sold out, not a suprise since his films are amazing. so upon arriving back in beijing i'd thought i would write up a review on the first of the three, oasis.

first off i loved the filming style, it reminded me of the typical gritty brit film. look at most famous english films and you'll notice they're filmed in run down looking area's, the characters rarely have any decent clothing, just cheap stuff they've bought. the houses they live in look natural, messy and trinkets over tables or shelves, cans or bottles laying about. it's good to see this filming style is being used in other countries films. so straight from the start i liked the style of the film.

it also has a brilliantly realised pessimistic over view of humanity. by which i mean that in the film there is an undercurrent that nobody is willing to help anyone unless they can get something in return, and abusing somebodies trust or money is typical. in this light the main character is a noble person, he helps people without wanting anything in return, in fact he does an incredibly noble dead for his brother that comes out suddenly in the film. it's not surrounded with suspense or or build up, a character suddenly says it and it passes you by, until you think about it you don't remember to say 'bloody hell'!

although i don't usually write up the plotline i want to for this film because i liked it so much. it was sweet in a peculiar way, yet has a grim view of life in general.

the main character (find name) has been in prison for 2 and a half years due to a hit and run accident when he run over a worker without seeing him. on the day of release he's stuck in seoul in the middle of winter, very little money and wearing a hawaiian shirt and thin blue trousers. he wanders the streets, borrowing cigarettes off people and trying to find somewhere where he can eat some tofu. eventually he gets arrested again because he goes to a restaurant to eat without any money, trusting his brother to come and pay for him, despite him not knowing where he's moved too or even his phone number. his brother swings by the police station to collect him and take him back home. none of the family are happy to see him as they believe he only causes trouble.

one of the brothers, who in my eyes is a complete bastard, gets him a job as a delivery boy, a job he manages to lose almost as soon as he gets it when he takes the bike out for a midnight spin and crashes it. on the second day of his release he goes to find the son of the man he accidentally killed to say hello and bring him a fruit hamper, an odd thing to do but you realise soon on that he hasn't got all his marbles. as he arrives at their house they're moving out to somewhere new. so as he goes upstairs he finds their house empty except for a disabled woman in her late twenties. before you actually see her you see a white dove flying about the living room (some beautifully CG rendering at this point). it flaps about exploring the room before nestling down by the door. suddenly the door opens and the dove flies off, turning into a gleam of light reflected by a mirror, it was a mirage. this sort of thing happens several times and is probably one of the reasons behind the name 'oasis', a belief that when in the desert you imagine something that isn't there. as the main character enters the room he finds the disabled girl sitting on the floor playing with the mirror. he tries to make contact with her when suddenly the son of the murdered man and the wife come back upstairs. they kick him out of the house.

the couple are leaving the house and leaving the poor disabled woman there. you find out their plot is to get better accommodation by abusing the sister's disability. they take the nice house and leave her there in the apartment on her own, helped by the neighbours they pay 200 000 won to each month (about 100 quid). when they find out a housing inspector is coming to their house in order to see if the disabled woman is actually there they bring her round for the day so they don't get in trouble. like i said before, everyone abuses everyone else. the main character finds the disabled woman interesting and so comes back to her a different day, bringing her flowers, the neighbour sees him and takes them in for him. he leaves.

now knowing where the keys are to get in the flat he comes back another day to see her again. and he attempts to rape her (he already has a previous conviction for attempted rape). she tries to fight and instead collapses. he panics and wakes her up with cold water than runs away. yet again you see another sign of abusing trust. the neighbour is using the disabled woman's place to conduct an affair with a policeman. after the girl has to listen to them rutting on the floor outside her bedroom she grabs the card the main character left behind and rings him in the middle of the night. despite being disabled she actually is pretty lucid, she just finds it hard to speak. she rings him up to ask him a question and asks him to come round the next day.

he comes round and she asks why he brought her flowers. thus starts the beginning of their friendship. during the day he helps clean the house, wash her clothes, sings to her, basically keeps her entertained. the previous attempt at rape basically forgotten, he won't do it again and she trusts him. like i said he's the only real character who is willing to help for nothing in return. in the end he takes her out of the house, he tries to take her to a restaurant but the waitress kicks them out with an excuse. this is where some of my favourite scenes come in. whilst their both on the tube the disabled girl sees a couple sitting together. the guy talking to his girlfriend while she gently taps his head with an empty bottle, he says something cheeky and she smacks him round the head with it. all of a sudden the camera pans away to the main character and we see the disabled girl rise off the seat in the background. her face is no longer distorted, she can stand properly and her hands are no longer clenched, she is, as much as i don't like describing it as such, normal. she looks at him and he smiles back, all of a sudden she whacks him round the head with a plastic bottle. we flick back to reality to find it's an image she was playing her head. this happens a couple of times in the story, and each time you see it you wish it was true, that she wasn't disabled and that they could be so close with each other.

this is what i mean about the pessimistic sweetness in the film. all those little joys in life we take for granted are out of reach for the poor girl and yet she knows she won't be able to do them she doesn't feel bad, instead she laughs at it.

the end of the film is saddening, i spent the whole time sitting in front of the screen, the thoughts stop it, don't let this happen, running through my head. after their date in seoul he takes her back to the house. as he's about to leave she grabs his arm and asks him not to go, and then asks him to sleep with her. we know at this point that they are both completely in love with each other. as they are making love in her bedroom her brother and the wife come round, it turns out it's her birthday and they've brought a cake. as they come in and open the bedroom door they see both of them in the bed and freak out, believing that the main character is raping her. they call the police and he's taken away. whilst in the police station the husbands wife takes over the voice of the disabled girl, not letting her telling the truth. problem is she's so overcome by stress she can't cope and can't speak. in other example of abusing trust or money the brother tells the main characters family he's ready to take a settlement instead of sending the guy to prison because apparently 'his sister would never find solace in his conviction in her state'. yet again he his abusing his sister to gets something he wants. it doesn't happen however and the main character gets arrested. however whilst he is praying with a pastor he breaks out and flees into seoul, chased by the police. he makes his way over to the girls house and instead of knocking on the door to see her he brings a saw and starts to cut down a tree outside her place. a leafless tree with twigs that leave shadow in the girls room that she is always afraid of. as he finishes cutting off the branches he falls off the tree and is arrested.

in the final scene we see the disabled girl on the floor of her apartment, cleaning it, actually like she's gained more ability over her body. whilst she is doing this we hear the main character reading out a letter he sent her from prison. they are both waiting for each other for when he finally comes out of prison. yet again that pessimistic sweetness shines through.

ok that was a bit long but i want you too see why exactly i like this film

ok acting, amazing is the simple word. the main character exerts throughout the flim a slightly warped persona, from the way he walks, talks, constantly sniffs and wipes his nose, even to the way he reacts to people. even his smile is pinned down to someone without all their marbles. the disabled girl herself is also an amazing actress. throughout the film she has her face screwed and distorted, eyes constantly darting about, limbs cramped into painful angles, wrists folded and fingers half closed, half sticking up. she snorts and talks with effort. it's only when she enters her 'oasis' and acts like a 'normal' person did i realise it was actually just acting, she's that good.

i haven't watched the other two films yet but i hope they are as good as this one, i'll be a happy bunny if they are.