SC - Lenten feasts (Selene's fish feast)

[Laura C. Minnick]

Balthazar of Blackmoor
>I might suggest The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her
>Lover...  I think this one was written by our good
>friend Bob Arson...

Is this some sort of in-joke? I don't get it. Greenaway writes his 
own movies as well as directs them.

For those who are squeamish, here's an excerpt from a description 
from the Edinburgh University Film Society
http://www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/societies/filmsoc/films/the_cook_the_thief.html

"The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is a typical Greenaway 
exercise in intellectual formalism and extreme physicality - this 
unusual mix securing its status as probably the only art-house 
cannibal film.

"The main themes of the film are also typically Greenaway - sex, 
death, decay and body as text. Of special note is the way in which he 
uses long tracking shots from one end of the restaurant to the other 
as a metaphor for the movement of food through the digestive system. 
Greenaway also plays on the division between the public and private 
zones of the restaurant, using changes in costume and lighting to 
highlight the way in which all this elegant food (the dining room) 
has an inelegant beginning (the kitchen) and end (the toilet).

"As usual for a Greenaway film everything looks or sounds amazing, 
with fine production design, cinematography, Jean-Paul Gaultier 
costumes, and an instantly recognisable Michael Nyman score. The 
performances, from Tim Roth's henchman to [Helen] Mirren's classy 
moll to [Michael] Gambon's repulsive Thatcherite gangster are 
impressive with the exception of [Richard] Bohringer, who seems to 
have difficulties with the language at times.

"All in all, a sumptuous spread for those with the stomach for it."

- ---------------

Greenaway's movies are rarely easy to watch, and often have similar 
themes - "sex, death, decay and body as text", although love is also 
an issue in most of his movies - explored in very different ways. His 
films tend to have a high intellectual level, yet are about emotions, 
and are emotional.

Visually they are like moving paintings. Everything is highly 
structured. One friend of mine who prefers more "naturalistic" films 
called Greenaway's movies "contrived", which is true, and in 
Greenaway's case i don't consider it a flaw but a typical 
characteristic. There's nothing "normal" about any of his movies, 
except that they deal with issues that concern us all, through 
situations that are rare or impossible.

I find them all exquisite to watch and very disturbing, except 
perhaps "Prospero's Books", based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest," 
which was made for European TV, with an extreme level of nudity that 
would not be allowed on USAmerican TV. Many people i know who can't 
take is other movies enjoyed this one. It is exquisite, but not too 
disturbing :-)

Yes, this message has no food content.

Anahita, just back from the 4th weekend of the Ren Faire