The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

7th March 2012 - at Hotspur House

So this was the first film night of Unit X at Hotspur House, also my first time visiting. So I was interested not only to see the film but to have a look around the place itself. It's a really interesting venue & I'm sure it's going to look amazing when it's full of busy people producing work.

It was the sense of mystery that added to the atmosphere, as it was a new environment & also nobody knew what film it was we were going to be watching.

 The film is written by Peter Greenaway & starring Helen Mirren. The added bonus for me was that all the costumes were designed by Jean Paul Gaultier.

The basic plot of the film is as follows:

Georgina is the ever suffering wife of a well known ganster named Albert Spica, who has taken control of a high class restaurant. Albert's behaviour is constantly rude, loud & just generally pig - like. Being unhappy in her marriage causes Georgina to go astray & start an affair with a man who regularly eats at the restaurant, name Michael. Eventually Albert finds out & threatens to find Michael, kill him & then eat him. So after finally tracking him down, Michael is killed at his own bookshop by being force fed pages from his own books. A distraught & angry Georgina wants nothing but revenge; so she asks the chef at the restaurant if he will cook Michael.
The film ends with the restaurant full of guests as Albert is presented with Michael's cooked corpse - after all he did say he would 'kill him, then eat him.' Georgina then shoots Albert in the head & there is a sense that his reign of terror is over.

The film is quite violent & gruesome & at some points was difficult to watch. There was a moment in the film were a lady at the restaurant was stabbed in the cheek with a dinner fork & the whole room squealed.

The thing that I honestly found most interesting about the film was that, when characters entered a different room, the colours would change - including their clothes. In the restaurant toilets everything was white, in the restaurant dining room everything was red & in the kitchen & outside everything was green. 

I enjoyed my night at Hotspur overall, it was a really friendly & welcoming atmosphere. Hopefully I will be able to attend a few more film nights in the future.