Grab, thanks for reminding me of Baghdad Cafe! Which got me into another series of "Oh Yeahs!" in the foreign film category: Zucker Baby, Soren and Fitz Carraldo are superb.

Margaret V., I can understand your reaction. I found The Cook, The Thief, The Wife and Her Lover an extremely important film because it took violence out of the realm of entertainment and put it into its proper scale. It was exactly the right size, no larger and no smaller than real life and hence unavoidably disturbing.

Actually the number of occurences and the severity of those events was actually modest compared to many other films, which do not affect us as profoundly. What made this film ring true, was the fact that the psychological impact and terror of these acts of violence, strike us as intensely as if we had been sitting in our favorite resturant and were to have such an event happen, two tables away from us.

This film does not glorify violence, but clearly expresses how violence and those who embrace and relish its credo, seek to violate and horrify and degrade those who reject it. The sexuality in the film has offended one or two critics who thought it would be more appropriate for Helen Mirren's part to be played by a post-pubescent Hollywood nymph (Siskel and Ebert and I believe one critic in the New York Times).

The fact that two middle aged human beings could find spiritual succor, mutual refuge and a passionate form of expression of their need for one another, may be lost in the intensity of the imagery (some of it beautiful, some of it savage). In many ways, this film was classical tragedy and grand opera presented in a format that would seldom serve either. As much as I admire and respect this film and its maker, I can certainly appreciate that it for many, would be difficult if not impossible to watch to its end.

I think we all bring different perceptions and sensitivities to our experience of Film, Art, Music etc. and the important thing is for us to trust our own instincts and sensibilities and be O.K. with that.