On 4 December, Cinema Lumière in Bruges is holding a one-off screening of the 1989 Peter Greenaway classic, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Greenaway’s provoking film on lust, revenge, power and sex takes place in the exclusive restaurant Le Hollandaise, where criminal and brute Albert Spica often dines together with his wife, Georgina. When Spica discovers that his wife has an affair with another regular client of the establishment, he ruthlessly takes his revenge. The luxurious costumes designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, together with Greenaway’s mise-en-scène, create an illusion of beauty. Underneath the appearances, however, there is an endless stream of the very worst that man has to offer, perhaps most notably unscrupulousness and unrestrained violence. Multiple morally corrupt characters move through the scenes of the film with unrestrained cruelty, often described as reminiscent of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch.
In Ostend, film collective Monokino is screening Ganga, the second part of a pentalogy by the painter Velu Viswanadhan. The five films are based on holy scripture and embody the fundamental elements of the universe, according to the Vedas: earth, water, fire, air, and ether. In Ganga, Viswanadhan explores the life-providing element water with the Ganges River as his travelling companion. The filmmaker travels along the river’s shores, capturing the Indian subcontinent through a documentary yet poetic lens, and meanwhile meditating on traces and expressions of life. His camera registers, among other things, religious rituals, fishermen, craftsmen and architecture, all marked and influenced by the permanent presence of the Ganges.
Tampopo, the 1985 Japanese cult classic named after a widow who runs a struggling ramen shop, is screening this Saturday at De Cinema in Antwerp. Truck driver Gorō and his colleague stumble upon Tampopo’s shop by chance, where they soon get into a fight with other costumers. Inspired by Gorō, the widow, who is in desperate need of guidance in noodle and broth making, sets out to improve her restaurant. This comedic tale – often labelled as a “ramen western”, due to the clever play on commercial cinematic stereotypes – speaks of an intense love for the Japanese kitchen and culture, while maintaining a nuanced view on what both should look like.
