![]() ![]() Even the costuming in this movie creates luscious color cues throughout, via the efforts of the avant-garde designer Jean Paul Gauthier. No other filmmaker is so good at capturing the succulence and kind of decomposition of food at the same time, as though this stuff is just this close to drawing flies.” It speaks to the vulgarity of such bountiful experience, wasted in the hands of brutish thugs such as The Thief, and to how his show of power over his domain and all that have the misfortune to be imposed upon by his demands will be crushed by his inherent corruption. The underlying theme of succulence and utter ripeness at the border of decay runs throughout this film – Alton Brown, a fan of this film, speaks on the theme throughout – “You’ll notice something in a lot of Peter Greenaway films and most absolutely in this one the food is both appealing and slightly repulsive at the same time. His painterly eye is unsurprising, given that Greenaway was a painter before he was a filmmaker. It is a visually stunning work, a breathtaking collage of the sublime and the vulgar, technicolor and jewel-toned, and richly layered in visual references to Baroque art throughout (particularly Flemish Baroque painting). Semiotics of the Sublime and the Grotesque within – The final act of revenge is most decidedly NOT served cold, as she forces Spica to eat the flesh of Michael, before ending him with a bullet to the skull. In a Shakespearian turn, her revenge is poetic and symbolic – Chef is convinced by Georgina to prepare her lover’s remains as the main course of a feast to be presented to her husband. This, needless to say, does not go well, and the resulting wrath from Spica that we bear witness to is horrific and violent as Michael is forcibly stuffed with the pages of his own beloved books. Somehow, they manage to meet and boldly begin an affair that is witnessed, aided and abetted by the restaurant staff and owner who are not enamoured of her cruel husband. Michael ( Alan Howard ) is a bookstore owner, and he is equally drawn to Georgina. ![]() Georgina finds herself distracted by a genteel man in the restaurant, who spends his time engrossed with reading as he enjoys his meal. Georgina herself seems to bear herself with elegance and a nuanced taste that goes undeserved by her husband, who constantly abuses and terrorizes her. Spica has elbowed his way to part “ownership”, prepared from the start of the film to bully his way to the forefront, each night bringing in his crew of henchmen and his long-suffering and traumatized wife Georgina ( Helen Mirren ) into the restaurant where he can openly display his brash and uncultured tastes at the dinner table as lavish feasts are presented for his consumption by the Cook, Richard Boarst ( Richard Bohringer ). We are introduced in a scene in which we see a man debased and beaten, ending in scatalogical humiliation. As a person with a deeply ingrained appreciation for the pleasures of food, not only for nourishment and enjoyment of it, but as a rich and sumptuous visual metaphor, this movie fed my art-house cravings.Īlbert Spica ( Michael Gambon ) is an imposing criminal boss, who has decided he will shine his patronage upon his favorite restaurant, Le Hollandais. Immediately upon seeing the opulently prepared food, knowing it would be rendered into refuse as the story progressed, I was reminded of a long-time favorite of mine, the Peter Greenaway film, “ The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover ” (1989). The Platform is also a horror, and horror requires something that perhaps brings up the bile in our throats, and what better statement to make about food as a symbol of Power, the inequities of this world, vice, transformation and survival than cannibalism? The movie is visually beautiful, managing to be both Brutalist in its sets, while a meticulously set table of a sumptuous feast is shown descending, to be ravaged and destroyed, color filtered through a washed out palette that renders its splendor null and void, draining it’s vitality as it heads into decay. Recently, I posted my thoughts on the movie “ The Platform ”, a movie which I watched as my thoughts turned to the rich experience of food at Thanksgiving. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover poster ![]()
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