The Cook The Thief His Wife Essay — страница 2

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“Your wife is your affair, Mr Spica. This is not a lost property office.” He exemplifies that Albert is of lower class. Richard is proud and arrogant and has high disregard for people who do not appreciate human values. He is sarcastic to Albert and can use his language to his advantage. These comments make Richard s character cynical. He uses their language barrier to his advantage. In that same scene while Albert thrashes food and silverware about, he desperately pleads to Richard ” Georgina is here somewhere! You miserable bastards have hidden them! My wife and that miserable book-reading jerk!” (Greenaway 66) Albert is so desperate. He realizes that he doesn t have the upper hand anymore and that Richard is now the boss. This angers him and we see his immature anger

take hold of him as he destroys everything in sight. Ranting and raving like a madman, he imitates a child who doesn t get his way. Albert s evident distress is now tipping the scales with his anger. In the last scene of the film, we see how Georgina exemplifies the exact opposite of what she was in the beginning of the movie. We also see how the idea of objective co-relative is once again brought into play. When Georgina is standing in front of Albert who is sitting at his dining table in front of the now-cooked Richard, she mockingly demands, ” it s Michael You vowed you would kill him and you did. And you vowed you would eat him. Now eat him.” (Greenaway 92) In this way she is acting in a way that Albert would act. By quoting Albert and holding him to his promise, Georgina

leaves Albert speechless. At that point, power changes hands and Georgina is now the one in control of Albert. Albert is subject to his own form of punishment and he simply can t take it. While this is not a direct statement of what Georgina stated, it is implied through the use of Eliot s objective co-relative . The concept of mise-en-sc ne is best illustrated in the final scene. Once we see the menu, traditionally beginning another day at the restaurant, we know that there is something special about this scene. Predominately it is the dress code which makes this scene stand above the rest. When we first see Georgina, we see that she wears a long, black, flowing, very contemporary, and quite sultry dress. There are enormous feathers branching out which gives the illusion that

she is bigger than she really is, thereby actually making her stronger. The power that the dress conveys is the same theme that we would perceive when viewing Albert in his 17th century frock coats and pants. Through the use of mise-en-sc ne , the audience feels as if though Georgina and Albert have changed power positions merely due to the clothing that they adorn. Using another example of mise-en-sc ne in this scene, when we see Georgina, Greenaway utilizes an extreme close up, thereby furthering her size and make it look like she is almost too big for screen. By making her seem bigger, she portrays more confidence and brilliance than ever before. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover by Peter Greenaway is a very deep and abstract film that can be taken on infinite

levels. By using the techniques of Charles Bressler and Timothy Corrigan, the viewer can realize elements in the movie that they would have missed before. They can in a sense get more for their dollar by not just taking the movie for its face value but analyzing it thoroughly and forming their own educated opinion about it. The literary and cinematic principles studied are extremely useful editing aids used to break down any film into smaller, more edible pieces. Works Cited Bressler Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1999, 1994. Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. 3rd ed. New York, Reading, Menlo Park: Timpthy J. Corrigan, 1998 Greenaway, Peter. dir. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her

Lover. Perf. Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard. Kees Kasander and All Arts Cook Ltd./Auto Films Inc Co-Production. 1990 Greenaway, Peter. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover. Great Brittan: Distributed Art Publishers. 1990