Hotspur House Film Nights- Ailsa Lishman

So every Wednesday at 7pm there's a film night at Hotspur House, I've been to two so far. It's such an interesting building to have a film night in, it has quite an eery feel with the lights out! 

The first film was The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover - probably not the best film to start on, as I think a lot of people would be put off by the gore of this film & presume that every film after it would be the same! 

The film was about a really awful & disgusting man, who owned a restaurant, where he took his wife to dine every night. You can tell from the beggining that his wife no longer wants to be with him, but she cannot stand up to him as he will beat her. Across the restaurant is a book shop owner, a regular diner, who the wife begins to have an affair with. This continues throughout the film, with the help of the workers of the restaurant, they sneak off into the back numerous times. The husband, of course, finds out about this affair, and tortures a young boy who works at the restaurant to find out where his wife is, the boy is carrying a book from the lovers bookshop, which of course has the address of the bookshop. The boy is taken to hospital, which his wife learns of, & she goes to visit him. Whilst she's away, her husband storms the bookshop, to find his wife's lover, and when they do, they torture him to death by force feeding him books. - this part was awful!!

The wife later finds the body, and as revenge on her husband, asks the chef to cook the body and serve it to her husband to eat, he eats a bite, then she shoots him in the head.

Not a particulary cheery film, but it did keep your attention the entire way through, I did really like the way the film was shot, the wife was wearing some gorgeous outfits designed by Jean Paul Gaultier, which changed colour everytime they entered a different room, which was a really interesting touch. Most of the film had quite dramatic music throughout also accompanied by a young boy soprano, singing opera most of the way through. It was definitely full of odd touches!