The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

It’s Friday, it’s movie night at home, so I decided I would put TCTTHWAHL on the DVD player. When I saw the disc in our local DVD shop, I thought, yes, it’s like drowning in rose-coloured acid, but at some point I want to see this film again.

 

I remember when Martin and I first saw it in a small Art Cinema in Amsterdam. After the film ended, the lights came up, but at first, no-one moved. Finally, our row staggered to its feet, but even then there came no movement to exit the row. We stood there stupified for a few seconds until a quavering voice came from the end of the row: "sorry about this, but we can’t leave because the woman at the end of the row has fainted…" We all knew what she had just gone through and immediately sympathised.

 

It is, as the Dutch version says on the cover: "een gruewelijk mooie film" – a gruesomely beautiful film. Visually, the colour palettes are extraordinary, and the actors magnificent. Whether it’s Michael Gambon spewing obscenties or the unbearable monologue of Helen Mirren on discovering her lover has been killed – the film is a brilliant work of high art.