The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
by Peter Greenaway
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VHS Tape Cover Information
Actor: Alan Howard, Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, Richard Bohringer, Tim RothDirector: Peter Greenaway
Cinematographer: Sacha Vierny
Writer: Peter Greenaway
Editor: John Wilson
Producer: Daniel Toscan du Plantier
Producer: Denis Wigman
Producer: Kees Kasander
Producer: Pascale Dauman
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Color, Dolby, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Running Time: 124 minutes
Release Date: 2001-03-13
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Publisher: Starz / Anchor Bay
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
VHS Movie Reviews of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Movie Review: More repulsive than an old John Waters movie.
Summary: 2 Stars
John Waters made movies that were so disgusting, they were funny- hilarious even. JW's movies were like a teenager trying to be as revolting as possible just to be funny. They were just awful- and awful-ly humorous. Yet there was no pretense of being "high art." John Waters knew he was crowning himself the queen of trash cinema.
This movie is not by John Waters. It's got all the disgusting violence and sexuality of "Desperate Living," but with a nauseating dose of pretense. The movie actually seems to think it's classy for some reason. It's because of the film's arrogance, the fact that this movie wants so desperately to be high art, that it fails.
It does look polished. It looks sumptuous. It's dazzling. Then you realize what's actually going on is so nasty it makes all the visual beauty worthless. It's kind of like a painting by H.R. Giger. At first it looks rich and full of depth, but when you actually focus in on it, you realize it's a painting of a jumbled pile of corpses (with some kind of monster mixed in for good measure).
...or maybe that's a bad analogy. I'll speak plainly.
It looks great (I've established that already). Pretty much every other aspect of the movie is either disappointing or off-putting. There's terrible violence (in some ways worse than many famous horror movies) and the whole thing reeks of pretense.
This is the perfect movie for anyone who wants to look artsy, deep, sophisticated, intellectual-- in the eyes of those who know nothing of art, depth, sophistication or intellect.
Summary of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover
Few directors polarize audiences like Peter Greenaway, a filmmaker as influenced by Jacobean revenge tragedy and 17th century painting as by the French New Wave. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is both adored and detested for its combination of sumptuous beauty and revolting decadence. A vile, gluttonous thief (Michael Gambon, The Singing Detective) spews hate and abuse at a restaurant run by a stoic French cook (Richard Bohringer, Diva), but under the thief's nose his wife (the ever-sensuous Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect) conducts an affair with a bookish lover (Alan Howard, Strapless). Clothing (by avant-garde designer Jean-Paul Gaultier) changes color as the characters move from room to room. Nudity, torture, rotting meat, and Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs) at his sleaziest all contribute the atmosphere of decay and excess. Not for everyone, but for some, essential. --Bret FetzerArt House & International VHS Video
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