Greenaway's grisly, color-coded fugue, built on themes of gluttony, adultery, fashion, art and retaliation, makes this his most deliciously nefarious venture. The film's blend of violence, eroticism, melancholia, and satire recalls a classic Jacobean revenge play, but the look is pure Rembrandt meets Gaultier. The film may be read as political commentary on Thatcher's Britain, visual commentary on the intersection of artistic practices in painting, architecture, and design, or as social commentary on the very status of the human soul in barbarous times.