Change Your Image
Kananga_PromNight
Reviews
Screen Two: Lent (1985)
Fairly vague
It's OK for what it is, but doesn't fare well next to bigger budgeted films of its type. The acting is mediocre and cinematography is fairly standard. what did surprise me was how much the film has dated since the 80s. It can be quite excruciating at times. Still, it has its charm in the same way other unheard of gems do.
I suppose in some ways it's extremely successful in what it does, but one must ask if it actually does much at all. The plot seemed to be a tad sketchy and sometimes it would lunge forward in jolts. If it's on TV i'd probably watch it but I wouldn't go out of my way to view it again.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)
profoundly disturbing, but not in an acceptable way
This is not art. So do not let your mind think that what you are viewing is acceptable because it is art. Its themes and emotions are too blatantly shoved in your face for it to be artistic. What you get instead is a compilation of vile characters, unspectacular sex scenes and unnecessarily crude violence.
This film relentlessly forces scene after scene of ugly, debauched filth into your face, hiding behind the facade of art. there is nothing artsy about the sex scenes, between a respected actress (before i saw this film) and a man who later gets stuffed with pages from his books. The final, fatal blow though resides at the films finale, where director Greenaway unleashes perhaps the most nauseating and intolerable scene in cinema history. Cannibalism... in its most horrific form to date.
The characters are shallow and two-dimensional and the plot is simply tasteless. The cinematography would normally be considered as good work but the colours and theatricalities of it all just add to the grotesque, debauched, pseudo-artistic.
In short there are no redeeming qualities to the film. I apologise for the repeated use of the words 'art' and 'artistic' but they are words that I hear being used in conjunction with this film that desperately need to be retracted to avoid giving other artistic films a bad name.
I am now left with a sickening feeling in my stomach having thought about this piece of vile filth for this long. Don't watch it.