Review of The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) by Troy M — 06 Dec 2010

Peter Greenaway created some of the most visually startling and original movies of the 1980s and this is one of his best.

It is the story of Albert Spica, the monstrous owner of a classy restaurant and his beautiful wife, who has an affair with a regular diner as an escape from the brutal world Spica inhabits.

Spica is played by Michael Gambon and he is totally loathsome. A more degenerate and vile character you can hardly imagine and the brutality of his behaviour is awful to see whether it is meted out to his wife, Helen Mirren, his henchmen or his rivals.

The opening scene of the movie is truly gut wrenching in its depravity and the violence, both verbal and physical is quite painful to watch.

All of this plays out in the surreal setting of the restaurant dining room, the kitchens and the toilets. Outside, a pack of dogs run wild and sumptuous and extravagant meals are served to sophisticatedly dressed diners (the costumes designed by Jean Paul Gaultier are extraordinary).

The sets are deliberately unrealistic, looking more like stage sets or still life paintings, each having a characteristic colour. A menu serves as an epigraph to each act of the film and there are plenty of Greenaway's games and tricks to watch out for such as a woman being bathed in the sink like a game bird being dressed for the table or the way the characters clothes change colour as they move between sets. There is an angelic kitchen boy who sings as he scrubs the pots and the beautiful musical score is by Greenaway's longtime collaborator, Michael Nyman.

In a tale such as this, you know things will not end easily, and the final scene is bound to be seared into the memory for a long time.

This is a bonkers, surrealist nightmare. Darkly humorous and shockingly violent. It inhabits a world of Greenaway's own twisted imaginings and truly has to be seen to be believed.