Typically strange Peter Greenaway fare, The Pillow Book follows the life of a woman who, as a girl, was painted on by her author father on her birthday. She begins a lifelong quest to find a replacement for this love, someone to paint on her and make her feel young again. She eventually finds him in Ewan McGregor, in one of his earlier (and most explicit!) roles. But she loses him in a spite of jealous rage and suffers greatly.
Greenaway's The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover is a favorite movie of mine, but this movie never grabbed me. It had its interesting cinematographic twists, certainly, but the main story wasn't that interesting, nor was the main character, a bit of a self-indulgent egotist. It dragged in places and, well, I just wouldn't recommend it.
This is the second time in the past few months I've heard someone mention "The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover". I'm adding it to my much too long "to rent" list. And, I'm searching your blog for any other reference to it. :)
The text of the URL is correct, but I think you made a copy / paste error with the link itself. Thanks for the review. Looks good.
Sorry for that - I tried to write the comment three times and each time failed to get it correct. Glad you finally made it over! I used to write longer reviews but haven't kept that site up in a while.