Product Details

• Actors: Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, Tim Roth
• Directors: Peter Greenaway
• Format: Color, Special Edition, NTSC, Widescreen
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Vidmark
• VHS Release Date: March 30, 1994
• Run Time: 123 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301783018
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #163,290 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Whether viewed as a darkly funny social allegory, pretentious cinematic masturbation, or a striking tale of lust and revenge, this controversial art-house hit is inarguably one hell of a rough, disturbing ride. Director/writer/painter/novelist Peter Greenaway arrived from the avant-garde school. His layered, cerebral aesthetic should be viewed on numerous levels. This examination of a deadly love triangle--set mostly inside a garish upper class restaurant--is his most conventional movie.

Every night inside the same French restaurant, a browbeaten Cook (Richard Bohringer) prepares an extravagant, obscene meal for a boorish Thief (Michael Gambon, frighteningly reprehensible here), his tormented Wife (Hellen Mirren, beautiful amongst the ugliness), and his yes-men crew. While the Thief humiliates everyone at his table, he fails to notice when his Wife begins a torrid affair with a quiet customer (the Lover, Alan Howard) sitting across the restaurant. This nightly game continues until the couple is discovered, setting up numerous acts of unspeakable revenge from both sides.

Though containing a fairly straightforward narrative, Greenaway saturates his study with a haunting Michael Nyman score, photographs it with endless horizontal tracking shots that extend forever, and complicates it with strict color schemes, various painting allusions and by doubling his characters as British class symbols. He also depicts behavior involving defecation, sadism/masochism, explicit sexuality, cruel torture and shame, graphic violence and cannibalism with unflinching glee and rare beauty. This isn't suggesting that such imagery is gratuitous, as Greenaway employs a visceral approach to suggest the desperate mental state of his characters--or pure rage and disgust, if it's to be read as a depiction of the divided state of the British class system under Thatcher. --Dave McCoy

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delectible sight for any artistic eye, July 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover [Unrated, Letterbox Edition] [VHS] (VHS Tape)

One of the best films I have ever viewed. All aspects of this film are cautiously and intelligently thought out allowing it to shine. Characters, music, plot and artistic staging are brilliant. I truely love watching this film again and again. I have already seen it approximately 18-20 times and enjoy it more and more!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HIGHLY VISUAL & WARPEDLY FUNNY, March 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover [Unrated, Letterbox Edition] [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A sick man who happens to be a high-ranking Party Member favors a particular restaraunt and takes the food and service mighty seriously. As his wife strays, he becomes increasingly suspicious about everything in sight. Vile and disturbing, yet wickedly funny, this was one of the best films of the year internationally! WHAT A PIG!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! A cinematic masterpiece., February 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover [Unrated, Letterbox Edition] [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The Cook, the theif, His Wife & Her Lover". This one the strangest films I've ever, but one the best. Director Peter Greenaway has woven a shockingly spectacular masterpiece. This is true "intellegent" film, with it's metoforic themes that are always interesting. Although shocking, this manages to please! Not for all tastes. Peter Greenaway fans will probably say this is his best film. Originally Rated X, by the MPAA, but release uncensored theatrically with no MPAA rating. Available on video in NC-17 & R rated formats. MPAA Rating: NC-17 (graphic sexuality, violence, gore, torture, and strong vulgar language).