Tom Jolliffe recalls Peter Greenaway’s top iconic film, an art masterpiece and an unbridled essay…
If anyone has ever seen Peter Greenaway’s film work, they will know that his films are hard to assimilate. Greenaway is an artist-turned-director. He was never interested in film. His canvas through the lens of his camera allows him to translate his very specific visions without obligation, but following the film regulations enacted through the establishment was never in Greenaway’s thinking. Like many other iconic administrators of some other artistic medium, he sought to transmit the moving symbol in his own way, whether or not it adhered to inflexible parameters. Andrei Tarkovsky, a photographer-turned-director, with a penchant for the intense feel of cinema that he had an equally unique vision.
In 1989, Greenaway would probably make his most available job available. First, when it comes to narrative, it is deceptively undeniable and the maximum “gender” on the surface. A story of love, murder and revenge. Simply put, this sounds like something many might find attractive. It stars Michael Gambon and Helen Mirren as husband and wife. The husband, Albert, is brutal and unpleasant. It is a microcosm of Thatcher’s political semantics, as well as the excess and class jumping of the 80s, and the prodigal excess of the times. Mirren plays the role of his suffering wife. Albert, who has taken over an upper-class French restaurant, has concepts above his intellectual and elegant position, as he feins wisdom and understanding of culinary art. He imposes his willingness to impress his table friends (from his table who are his subordinates). He doesn’t appreciate what he eats beyond the fact that it’s expensive or elegant.
Georgina (Mirren) is not interested in the total culinary affair and is discovered to be drawn through a solitary dinner he reads while he eats. The lover (Alan Howard) is the intellectual. A quiet entity in a corner of the room that is only interested in his literature and learning, while the others (Albert in particular) are more involved with excessive expenses and pretensions. It could be said that conservative arrogance consumes true intellectual rationality, but Greenaway, in fact, points to the pomposity of the times and perceived immorality (this is Ken Loach through artistic metaphor and allegory). Like Albert, Gambon delivers an iconic performance and perhaps one of the reprehensible highest characters who has never participated in the cinema. There is so much laughter in Gambon’s chewing landscapes and it rarely becomes strangely friendly. His ability, too, to transfer between moments of overlooked rage and childhood moments of solemn enragedness similar to a child who cannot look at Cbeebies, is certainly masterful.
He begins an illicit adventure and soon the chef (Richard Bohringer) becomes Georgina and Michael’s best friend. Increasingly, apart from a few henchmen of unwavering loyalty and intellectual best-friend challenged, everyone opposes Albert, fed up with his overwhelming and devouring behavior. Greenaway’s techniques here closely resemble a combination of paint with the lens, and almost with intent, the best friend got rid of the camera that gives the impression of watching a theatrical scene (we see widely the sets from a position, as if our position in the audience never changes). The only moments when we feel this detail of cinema are in the long followings with a different rhythm that take us from one set to another. The film takes the most basic position in the connection spaces of the position itself to eat. The exterior, the kitchen, the dining room and the bathrooms (we also have more confined interiors like a pantry, a truck and then Michael’s library).
Greenaway interested in Renaissance and Baroque paintings. This is something that stands out through many of his works, as it frames a shot, but also specific in this film with such a strong use of colors. Very intense colors that look almost painted, like the film designed with tecnicolor. These long follow-up shots take us through configurations with a different color code, from blue to green, through red, amber, a more earthy brown and then almost all white in the bathroom. Even more interestingly, some of the characters see a replacement in the colors of the costume (the costumes of the film designed through Jean-Paul Gaultier no less) as they move from stage to stage, especially Georgina, whose total coloring replaces, while Albert’s accessory replacement.
Greenaway also has a penchant for hate. Film usually seeks to invite an audience and keep it in a story, even when parts of that story can be difficult to see. Greenaway is of no such care. It shows vulgarity in violence, sexual diversion and horrific visions of rotten flesh, abused Albert’s battered victims and the effects of death through literature. All this culminating in a macabre final moment that pushes a little more the culinary theme of excess and gluttony. The film is also quite graphic with nudity. Not as particular as you might have noticed in a photo of Tinto Brass, but in fact for Mirren and Howard, it’s all exposed in sequences that have a candor on them that never tickles them (especially when illicit lovers have to hide in a truck. bare flesh). Greenaway demands situations that push us back, that we stay beyond the duration of our arms, but at the same time as it seems like a horror, he has superimposed his film on those beautiful and beautiful images. From framing to lighting, scenery, costumes and staging, it’s resplendent. So, despite those moments that are growing back, we’re still thrilled, and this push pull is a teacher’s brand (it also helped through Michael Nyman’s exceptional music). His anti-agency technique is in the end what makes his films intrinsically exclusive and so captivating. Nothing but the cook, the thief, his wife and his lover.
Tom Jolliffe is an award-winning screenwriter and passionate about film. It has several DVD/VOD videos worldwide and several releases scheduled for 2020/21, adding The Witches Of Amityville (with Emmy winner Kira Reed Lorsch), War of The Worlds: The Attack and The Star-Studded Action. Films, Renegades (Lee Majors, Billy Murray) and Crackdown. Learn more about the most productive non-public site ever seen… https://www.instagram.com/jolliffeproductions/