cook_thief_wife

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

U.S. Release Date: 4/6/90
Running Time: 2:05
Rated: NC-17 (Sex, nudity, violence, profanity, rotting fish and meat)

Cast: Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard, Tim Roth, Ciaran Hinds, Liz Smith

Director: Peter Greenaway
Screenplay: Peter Greenaway
Music: Michael Nyman
Studio: Miramax Films

“People need short, sharp, shock treatment.”

If Babette’s Feast is the queen of “food films,” The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is the king. Better yet, in comparing CTWL to a deck of playing cards, the motion-picture is ace high or trump. The significant difference that sets this masterpiece apart from all other “food films” is that CTWL depicts dining in the most nightmarish of ways.

Differing from your average motion-picture on food, this British classic avoids the representation of food as a delicate art form that unites family/friends/strangers at table for profound discussion and matter-of-fact realization. In contrast, CTWL brings out the savagery and sexuality in the human element. CTWL will warp your image of eating and establish a limit on what you can stomach. It’s perverse, twisted, erotic, and titillating.

In the film’s opening scene, dogs devour raw meat; a man is stripped, smeared with feces, and urinated on by Albert (Michael Gambon), the owner of the Le Hollandais restaurant. Albert is an oafish thief and glutton who views money as business and ingestion/sex as pleasure. Once his quiet wife Georgina (Helen Mirren) engages in an affair with a reading restaurant patron named Michael (Alan Howard), the pot begins to boil.

In an attempt to hide the pair of love-makers from Albert, the cook, Richard (Richard Bohringer), offers Georgina and Michael secluded areas to fornicate— the kitchen, the refrigerator, etc. Even still, two of Albert’s barbaric followers stumble upon the affair and inform Albert of the truth. At this instant, the situation spirals into a world of murder, torture, cannibalism, and revenge.

Four main stages (from left to right) comprise the story’s setting: the street, the kitchen, the restaurant, and the bathroom. Each locale is specifically color coded: black, green, red, and white respectively. With each scene/room change, the characters’ outfits match the modification in color scheme. In turn, Greenaway paints a perfect picture. ~ Speaking of painting, the canvas in the backdrop of the restaurant is appropriately “The Banquet of the Officers of the St. George Militia Company” by Frans Hals in 1616.

Considering CTWL is labeled as “The Most Controversial Film of the Decade,” it is more than deserving of its NC-17 MPAA classification. Featuring rotting animal flesh, splattering eggs, belching, vomiting, wiping of bottoms, and a stabbing with a fork, CTWL grosses out to the nth degree. In addition, it possesses its fair share of full-frontal. Furthermore, keeping in mind that “eating and sex are closely related,” Greenaway cleverly establishes invisible channels between cooking and intercourse, extravagance and waste removal, and the living and dead.

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is a provocative, brilliant, and unnerving motion-picture that should never be placed on the back-burner. No other “food film” exhibits the vast emotions and arousals that cooking and eating can muster. To boot, CTWL offers intriguing discourse on the psychology behind pricing a menu and the details behind food fetishes and oral fixations. This masterful motion-picture melds the sexy and the repulsive. Be prepared to salivate and simultaneously regurgitate your popcorn. Nonetheless, you are encouraged to gourd yourself on this tasty and eerie experience.