Noirsville short of the Month

Charles Antonetti's

 The Last Case

Ecrit, réalisé, monté par : Charles Antonetti

Avec : Adrien Levy et Héloïse Fatout

Avec les voix de : Alister Herring et Kristyna Ruth Zaharek

Musique originale : Clara Fournier

Décor miniature du bureau : Julie Chalmin

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) A Satiric, Bizarre, Black Comedy Noir

"Try the cock, Albert. It's a delicacy, and you know where it's been." (Georgina)

Written and Directed by Peter Greenaway (Drowning by Numbers, The Draughtsman's Contract). Greenaway is also a visual artist, and trained as a muralist. 

The excellent Cinematography was by Sacha Vierny (A Taste For Women, Last Year at Marienbad, Belle Du Jour, La femme publique). Outstanding Music by Michael Nyman. The costume design was by Jean-Paul Gaultier. 

Be forewarned this will definitely not be to everyone's taste... 

Story

The darkness is broken by a slow mo of dogs feasting on restaurant scraps. We here dogs barking and a methodical industrial pounding sound The credits appear over this. 

As we start an ascension from the dogs, at Director of Photography credit, the pulsing strings of the Nyman score starts. Our view looks as if it's through scaffolding, as if we are rising on a freight elevator a "monte-charge," that stops at what appears to be street level, when we see two uniformed waiters walk towards warehouse sized doors and open them. 

Our view goes right out the doors of a delivery entrance. At the same time, a jag come squealing around a corner and into the lot followed by two delivery trucks. 

Here at this point, is where the title appears, and between the two trucks the final vehicle a 1973 Dodge Dart pulls up to the entrance, while a man is being forcefully drought to the Dart. There's dogs running all over the place along with scattered piles of dog shit. 

You can hear Albert Spica (played by Michael Gambon) aka "The Thief" He's a gangster in this bizarre UK "Noirsville."

Spica is yelling at the poor schmuck named Roy, who missed a loan payment. For that affront, Spica has his goons strip the mans shirt off and, while he is being held down over the trunk of the Dodge.  Spica is smearing dog shit, which his toadies are scraping up off the pavement with cardboard box top litter, delivery scraps, into Roy's mouth and face.

Sitting in the Darts back seat and listening to all this is Georgina Spica, (Helen Mirren) , "His Wife": She appears classy and sophisticated compared that crass piece of work Albert. You gotta be intrigued by that backstory. 

Helen Mirren as Georgina Spica

Albert ain't done yet.

Albert gives his men the order to strip Roy, and he smears more dogshit over his nude body. Albert stands over Roy and urinates on him.

Albert: Now, I've given you a good dinner, and you can have a nice drink. [He pees on Roy] Now, you behave yourself in future and pay when I ask you, or next time I'll make you eat your own shit, after first forcing it out through your dick like toothpaste.

Michael Gabon as Albert Spica

Georgina is now out out of the Dart, telling Albert that she's hungry, she does it quite nonchalantly as if Alberts tirades happen a lot.  

The Spica party leaves the back lot and enters the "Le Hollandais" restaurant though the delivery entrance. Alberts men are now toting giant letters. Everything about Le Hollandais is huge, both kitchen and dining room are cavernous. 

A Dream Restaurant.

Here we first meet Pup, a dishwasher with a Harpo Marx hairdo who is a boy soprano. He sings "The Miserere" (music by Michael Nyman, after Psalm 51), while doing his dish work. 

Albert and Georgina pause and listen. Then Albert flips him a coin tip and continues past the stoves and up to Richard (Richard Bohringer) aka "The Cook" the chef and part owner is plucking Alberts duck dinner. 

 

Albert shows Richard their new sign. When he calls for it to be energized, it only temporarily alights and then trips all the breakers sending the dining room into darkness. 

Albert is also all excited about the seafood and meat supplies he's scored probably by some shady deal or outright hijacked. He thinks Richard will be pleased. He tells Richard that his name represents quality. However Richard is not a great chef for nothing.

Richard tells Albert he shops himself and buys his own provisions for his restaurant. This sequence in the kitchen between Albert and Richard is intercut with shots of Roy gathering up his pants out in the back delivery lot. 

When Albert finally leaves the kitchen, Richard grabs a chair by the back doorway and indicates for Roy to sit whale he directs kitchen personnel to hose the dog shit off him, and give him a drink of wine.

At this point we finally leave the rear of the restaurant and here is where we first experience Greenaway's interesting color pallet, Various colors are used to indicate each different domain in this "dream /nightmare" of a restaurant. 

The rear exterior of the restaurant and paved lot is Blue, the kitchen is Green, the restaurant dining room is Red, the restrooms White, and later we see the book depository (Michael's domain) as Burnt Orange. 

So as a character, lets use Georgina for an example, as she moves from the domain of the dining room to the restroom her dress changes from red to white. 

"Greenaway stated the changing of colours represents how characters move between and inhabit each different world." (Wiki).

Back to the story. Spica's party is now seated in the dining room and Albert is obnoxiously opining, as usual, about everything under the sun.  

Albert: What you've got to realize is that the clever cook puts unlikely things together, like duck and orange, like pineapple and ham. It's called 'artistry'. You know, I am an artist the way I combine my business and my pleasure: Money's my business, eating's my pleasure and Georgie's my pleasure, too, though in a more private kind of way than stuffing the mouth and feeding the sewers, though the pleasures are related because the naughty bits and the dirty bits are so close together that it just goes to show how eating and sex are related.... 

It starts going Noirsville right at the get go. because while Albert is being a perfect douche, Georgina has focused her attention on another diner, Michael aka "Her Lover." Michael is eating while reading a book. Georgina is intrigued and while so, she's placing a phallic asparagus spear into her mouth. A bit of the ol' subtext here. 

Michael is so concentrated on what he is reading that the item on the tip of his fork, that he is about to place in his mouth, falls back to the plate. 

When he is surprised by finding the fork end empty, he glances around and spies Georgina watching him. They both like what they see. Georgina is brought painfully back into Albert's world when after he asks Georgina ....

"Aren't They Georgie?"

Albert: Georgie's naughty bits are nicely related, aren't they, Georgie?

Albert smacks Georgina hand with a spoon when Georgina still looking at Michael, doesn't answer. Its a hard enough smack to bring tears in Georgina's eyes.

Soon after this, Michael gets up, walking towards the restrooms. He looks back at Georgina as he makes his way. Georgina gets the message and follows. 

Here we get a beautiful sequence which is filmed like an elaborate silent mating dance to Nyman's Fish Beach.

We watch Georgina pass from the red dining room into the white ladies room. Her dress changes red to white. While she touches up her makeup, Michael comes in the door and watches her. His suit goes from maroon to brown.

He then makes an I'm not sure what to do gesture. with his hands and steps back out. She follows, into the small red foyer for the restrooms.  

Georgina turns slowly and approaches Michael walking past him. He follows, she notices turns and she offers him a smoke from a cigarette case, he shrugs it off. She fishes out a cig, its red, also. She lights it walks back past Michael, turns again towards him, but then wisely, heads back out to the dining room crushing out her smoke as she departs.

Out in the dining room she swings wide and stops at Michaels table to see what book he is reading. The mating spell and music stops when Georgina replaces Michael's book on the table and goes back to Albert.

Georgina and Michael continue with their dinners for a while with both stealing glances at each other. You get the impression the sap is rising, so to speak. 

Meanwhile Albert is droning on about some stripper who got splashed with battery acid on her backside, but explains that she still strips the same, but now the act in more, full frontal. 

Suddenly, Georgina leaps up from the table, Albert asks her where she's going and she replies she left her "lighter in the toilet." Michael also gets up and as we cut back to the foyer outside the restrooms, Nyman's Fish Beach, begins again as the mating leitmotif. 

Michael approaches Georgina. She grabs Michaels hand and puts it on her breast they embrace. Georgina pushes off gently, and leads Michael back into the ladies room and into one of the stalls.

They begin to make love, but get interrupted when another woman enters the toilet. Michael hops on the toilet stool so his feet aren't showing. 

While he is in this position he unbuckles his belt, and is about unzip his trousers when Georgina takes over. Georgina pushes him up and begins to fellate Michael. When the woman in the ladies room leaves Michael steps down and begins to have intercourse with Georgina up against to stall wall. 

They continue until Albert comes bursting into the ladies lounge yelling for Georgina. Panicked Michael and Georgina get dressed and Michael again steps up on to the toilet to hide his feet.

Albert: What are you doing in there, Georgie? You playin' with yourself? That's not allowed. That's my property, you're not allowed to fiddle with it. Now come on, open the door, I'll show you how to wipe yourself.

Georgina tells him that she's having a quite smoke. When it sounds as if Albert left, Michael pantomimes her to pull the chain and then unlock the door. When Georgina opens the door, Albert pops his head out of another stall, surprising her, 

Michael is able to duck back into the stall unseen. 

Georgina is able to keep Alberts attention on her as they leave the ladies room. 

This is at the half hour point in the film and it only spirals in deeper from here, all the while Greenaway imaginatively envisions the rest of the film as courses on an expensive prix fixe menu.

Noirsville

This is a flamboyant Visual Noir Arthouse Masterpiece. Peter Greenaway, Sacha Vierny, and Michael Nyman, do to Noir, what Sergio Leone did for the Western. 

Its been said that Leone made Once Upon A Time In The West into High Opera, an operatic western, where the arias were stared not sung. Greenaway here does almost the same for Neo Noir and elevates it into a rich sensory abbondanza. Like Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, every frame here is a renaissance mural. 

The main actors Richard Bohringer (Subway, Diva), Michael Gabon (The Singing Detective, Sleepy Hollow), Helen Mirren (Age of Consent, Hussy, The Long Good Friday), and Alan Howard are all excellent. 

The rest of the cast includes Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction) as Mitchel sort of Spica's main lieutenant / gofer, other gang members are Gary Olsen as Spangler, Ewan Stewart as Harris, Bob Goody as Starkie, Ron Cook as Mews, Roger Ashton-Griffiths as Turpin, the gangs eyeglass wearing bookkeeper.

Liz Smith plays Grace,  Albert's mother. 

Ciarán Hinds (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Cory, as a pony-tail wearing pimp, Roger Lloyd-Pack as Geoff, and Ian Dury (Judge Dred) as Terry Fitch, all underworld associates of Spica. 

Diane Langton plays May Fitch, Terry's wife. Emer Gillespie as Patricia one of Cory's girls, Alex Kingston as Adele, a red-dressed waitress at the restaurant, and Flavia Brilli as the cabaret singer.

Bravo! 10/10