Greenaway's opulent spectacle of carnage and carnality is The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie refashioned as Jacobean horror show. Michael Gambon (The Singing Detective) plays the despicable Spica, a bloated, belching gangster who forces his victims to eat feces, buttons, and books while he and his Gaultier-clad wife (Helen Mirren) dine out every evening at the elegant Le Hollandais restaurant. In this color-coded huis clos diners eat delicacies under a huge Frans Hals painting, ever mindful of the violence which could erupt from the porcine Thief at any moment. Greenaway presents tableau after symmetrical tableau of putrefaction, humiliation, mutilation, evacuation, cannibalism, and rancid sex in the deep-hued or pristine white rooms of the posh Hollandais, as critique of the destructive nature of consumerism. (As in Babette's Feast, the Cook is the artist whose creations bring a semblance of beauty to this appalling universe.)-James Quandt, Cinematheque Ontario