The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
February 11, 2026
Not for everyone, this sumptuously filmed amoral tale of food, sex, and revenge remains an almost repellant sensorial binge more than 35 years later.
Greenaway’s controversial arthouse hit is an elegantly plated but hardly appetizing revenge tragedy set in a gourmet restaurant owned by amoral, appetite-driven gangster/glutton Michael Gambon, much deceived by wife Helen Mirren. Costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier, a lavish score by Michael Nyman, and color-coded cinematography by Sacha Vierny add to the sensorial binge that is this gristly and gruesomely gorgeous portrait of consumer over-indulgence.
- Director: Peter Greenaway
- Principal Cast: Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard, Tim Roth
- Country: United Kingdom, France
- Year: 1989
- Running Time: 124 min.
- Screenplay: Peter Greenaway
- Cinematographers: Sacha Vierny
- Editors: John Wilson
- Music: Michael Nyman
- US Distributor: Universal