The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover 1989

Lust...Murder...Dessert. Bon Appetit!

7.365 / 10   585 vote(s)
NC-17
Crime Drama

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

Release Date 1989-10-13
Runtime 2h 4m
Directors Peter Greenaway, Sacha Vierny, Gerrit Martijn
Producers Kees Kasander, Pascale Dauman, Daniel Toscan du Plantier, Denis Wigman
Writer Peter Greenaway

Having previously watched Greenaway's 'Prospero's Books', basically from the same era, one definitely gets a sense of the auteur, of great visualizing prowess in the Welsh native. I adore watching Helen Mirren from ANY era, but particularly here, in between the young adulthood beauty she displayed in Michael Powell's 'Age of Consent', through the remarkably absurd and audacious 'Caligula', straight to the sophisticated and very dangerous gorgeousness displayed in 'The Comfort of Strangers'.

It's great to see any dude who's mean to a beautiful woman get their comeuppance (particularly the wealthy--it offers a sort of 'wish fulfillment' for the 99% of us), and the climax here is one of cinema's most articulate presentation of that phenomenon. It definitely made me wish to see the rest of both Greenaway's movies and of Mirren's performances. Well worth the acquired taste necessary for this sort of delicacy.

talisencrw