The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

1990 "Lust...Murder...Dessert. Bon Appetit!"
7.5| 2h4m| NC-17| en| More Info
Released: 06 April 1990 Released
Producted By: Allarts
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husband's restaurant.

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Reviews

GamerTab That was an excellent one.
Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
Suman Roberson It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.
Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.
nowego This would have to be one of the weirdest, creative and most original movies I've ever seen. The way it is filmed makes it look like the set is a huge stage which then makes the movie seem like a play. The camera seems to just drift around the restaurant rooms effortlessly and you only see each room from certain angles. You have to be observant to see the subtle changes that happen as the characters move from room to room, most seem to miss this.This is black comedy at its best in the hands of a master. Peter Greenaway does this one proud, probably my favourite movie he has directed. The whole movie feels very existential and you will question many of the things going on and ponder what they really mean. How Peter Greenaways can come up with such an original and clever story is baffling. I can only think that he would be the only one who could execute it so well. Everything is done brilliantly, food, clothes, sets, music, lighting and cast.
sidthefish1 I love Helen Mirren and Michael Gambon and Tim Roth. I also love revenge movies. This one was alot of work, and it was not enjoyable at all. The minute I saw Michael Gambon as this character I wanted him dead. With all his braggadocio I don't see MG's character being afraid or intimidated when presented with a cooked man. I would have been happier if MG's character had been boiled alive. Getting shot was just too easy. Overall this is just a dark, depressing movie. Visually it is beautiful the costumes and lighting are amazing, but sitting through it for two hours was just really not fun. And the pay off just left me cold. You want the audience to go YEAH! Instead I was praying for the end.
gavin6942 The wife (Helen Mirren) of an oafish restaurant owner (Michael Gambon) becomes bored with her husband and considers an affair with a regular patron (Alan Howard).First thing worth noting is the color scheme, with its bright red, blue, green and white. Not just a clever way to indicate what room the action is in, but a great use of the colors themselves. There is the risk that too much color is garish, but not here. Perhaps the best use of color since "Suspiria".Then, you have the bold nudity, not typical in an English-speaking film. Helen Mirren, fully nude for several minutes? And Alan Howard, flopping in the breeze? You bet. But it is not just nudity for nudity's sake. It really shows how vulnerable these folks are.
Leofwine_draca I have a problem with art-house films like THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE & HER LOVER and it's that the directors of such fare are often totally ignorant when it comes to decent film-making. Sure, they obsess over designer costumes and make-up, and they focus intently on the colour palette of their movies, but when it comes to movie-making staples like pace, character, dialogue, and intrigue, they fail.Peter Greenaway is such a director. This controversial 1989 opus is known for its gruesome scenes of cannibalism, yet take away the controversy and there's absolutely nothing here to rate this. The running time is as slow as a snail, and much of it is made up of scenes of the repulsive Michael Gambon character berating his wife and associates.Greenaway's a better director than he is a writer, because the script is terrible. We get the gist of Gambon's character and the situation with his wife in the first ten minutes, yet two hours of non-action go by in which we're bludgeoned over the head with his sheer monotonous brutish nature. The whole film takes place on a cheap-looking set that quickly becomes boring, Helen Mirren spends most of the running time naked and forgets how to act, and luminaries such as Tim Roth and Ciaran Hinds are wasted.Yes, there are a few shocking scenes, yet cannibalism is dealt with in a much more entertaining fashion in both B-movie fare (such as Pete Walker's 1974 FRIGHTMARE) and Hollywood flicks (like RAVENOUS). I'm not against arty films where nothing happens, but there has to be substance to go with the style; Nic Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW is a case in point: one of my favourite films of all time, but hardly action-packed. THE COOK... just wastes a great deal of potential and proves to be another case of The Emperor's New Clothes.