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Cast: Michael Gambon (Albert Spica), Helen Mirren (Georgina Spica), Alan Howard (Michael), Richard Bohringer (Richard)
Directed by: Peter Greenway
Release date: April, 1990

Peter Greenway is not a very well known director. His movies are seen by few. And his work won’t suit everyone’s tastes. He is an artist with an unflinching, unnerving vision. The world as seen through his lens is cruel and barbaric but it has a savage beauty, all its own. The primitive visceral instincts might gross out most viewers. But if you can sit through it all, you will be rewarded with a view into a fascinating and twisted microcosm of society as a whole. And of course, startlingly courageous performances by the cast.

Albert Spica is a human specimen of the lowest order. He can hardly be called a man. He is a thug who makes a living by charging protection fees from the locals. He is safeguarding them from the irrational temper of his associates and food poisoning. He owns a French restaurant Les Hollandes and he has hired a culinary artiste, Richard to run it. Every night Albert comes to the restaurant with his wife Georgina and his obnoxious group of henchmen. Albert takes the lead in setting new standards of unimaginably sadistic and vulgar behavior and his associates follow in his footsteps. Georgina suffers the humiliation stoically. More puzzling is how the other patrons sit through the nightmarish atmosphere.

On one of these nights, Georgina sees a middle-aged bespectacled guy reading a book at a small table in a corner. He is so engrossed in the book that when the morsel of food drops from his fork, he doesn’t realize it. Georgina smiles and their eyes meet. Ten minutes later they are having sex in the ladies washroom. From here on, it becomes a daily routine. Every night, Georgina excuses herself while Albert is busy playing his little obscene games and insulting the cook, his sidekicks and other guests. She sleeps with her lover, Richard, in the kitchen, the meat locker, the refrigerator, the toilet. Richard despises Albert’s crassness and helps Georgina out.

At first, Georgina and her paramour make love in silence. For Georgina, it is a desperate momentary escape from the dreary truth of her life with Albert. Then one night, Albert gets irritated with Richard’s reading and calls him up to his table and forces Georgina to converse with him, making her parrot statements like how much she spends per week on clothes and how she goes to the best hairdresser.

Finally, Albert learns of his wife’s dalliance. Georgina and Richard escape with the cook’s help. But Albert locates their hideout and takes his revenge on Richard. Richard is mercilessly tortured and murdered with the ‘tools of his profession’. When Georgina discovers Richard in that state, she is devastated. She is transformed from a frightened, submissive wife, hiding in fear from the wrath of her husband into a terrible avenging angel. The final scene of the movie where Albert is made to pay for his sins is surreal and macabre, but a fitting climax for the story.

The director aided by his actors, takes it to absolute extremes. The set design is outlandish and the shifting lights are garishly bright. The restaurant looks like the banquet hall from a medieval castle of some royal putting up an ostentatious display of his wealth.

Critics have interpreted this controversial movie in various ways… as an indictment of Margaret Thatcher’s iron rule in Britain or on a broader scale as a symbolic portrayal of corporates taking over and bullying the silent majority into submission. Greenway himself has never cared to clarify. While the deciphering of the metaphorical messages is best left up to the viewer, this movie is an unforgettable experience, which provides serious food for thought. It treads far off from the beaten path of the timid fare we generally watch in the name of cinema.