The Movie: The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, & Her
Lover (1989)
What Is It?:
Peter Greenaway creates a world that is both beautiful and thoroughly grotesque with haunting music, daring use of color, intricate set design, and realistic
performances from the leads that offset the completely stylized look and feel
of the film. Helen Mirren plays the wife of a vile restaurant owner (is he a
thief? He never really steals anything in the film, but whatever). Mirren’s
lover is a bookworm who provides solace from her turd of a husband. A lot of
people find The Cook, The Thief, His
Wife, & Her Lover simply too disturbing to bear, and it is a pretty
gritty film despite its visual beauty. Be prepared for a John Waters-level of
vomiting, shit-smearing, rotting food, and all manners of torture.
Why Today?: Today
is Book Lover’s Day.
