The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover


Starring:Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, Helen Mirren, Alan Howard, Tim Roth, CiarĂ¡n Hinds, Gary Olsen, Ewan Stewart, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Ron Cook, Liz Smith, Emer Gillespie, Janet Henfrey, Arnie Breeveld, Tony Alleff, Paul Russell, Alex Kingston, Ian Sears, Willie Ross, Ian Dury
Director: Peter Greenaway
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video
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 Fetzer
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover [Region 2]
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • "Bon apetit, Albert, that's French"
  • Good, but flawed
  • Sumptuous
  • A thorough critique of human greed & excess.
  • Torture for art's sake???
 The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover [Region 2]
Starring: Richard Bohringer , Michael Gambon , Helen Mirren , Alan Howard , and Tim Roth
Director: Peter Greenaway
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
Bohringer, RichardBohringer, Richard | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Cook, RonCook, Ron | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Dury, IanDury, Ian | ( D ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Gambon, MichaelGambon, Michael | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Henfrey, JanetHenfrey, Janet | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Howard, AlanHoward, Alan | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Kingston, AlexKingston, Alex | ( K ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Mirren, HelenMirren, Helen | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Olsen, GaryOlsen, Gary | ( O ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Ross, WillieRoss, Willie | ( R ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Roth, TimRoth, Tim | ( R ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Smith, LizSmith, Liz | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Stewart, EwanStewart, Ewan | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Greenaway, PeterGreenaway, Peter | ( G ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
( C )( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. The Belly of an Architect
  2. Hussy
  3. A Zed & Two Noughts
  4. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
  5. The Draughtsman's Contract

ASIN: B0000UM0NU

Amazon.com essential video

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 Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars "Bon apetit, Albert, that's French".......2007-06-05

Revenge has never been served that well - deliciously and artistically. The visuals, the costumes, the set decoration, the changing colors cinematography and the soundtrack in this black comedy are stunning - the grandmasters were working on the movie - Peter Greenaway, first and foremost a painter and a damn fine one, his brilliant cinematographer Sasha Verny, his astounding composer Michael Nyman who used for the movie the incredible "Memorial", and Jean-Paul Gaultier who designed the costumes. It also helped to have Helen Mirren (as the long suffering wife, Georgina who in the end will serve her husband very well cooked revenge) and Michael Gambon (Albert-the thief, the gangster, the embodiment of pure evil and the owner of the swank restaurant) as two stars. Alan Howard plays a regular guest to whom Georgina is attracted and carries on an affair with in the restaurant's restrooms and later in the back rooms, with the help of the Artist-cook (Richard Bohringer). Every frame of each Greenaway's movie looks and feels like an exquisite painting. "A Zed and two Naughts" is Greenaway's homage and admiration for Vermeer; The Draughtsman's Contract quite openly refers to Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour and other French and Italian artists. "The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover" would bring to mind Rembrandt but I see Peter Greenaway as Hieronymus Bosch of the cinema - the creator of enormously beautiful, divine canvas depicting all horrors of hell that only humans can inflict on one another.

3 out of 5 stars Good, but flawed.......2007-03-26

I saw this in 1990, shortly after it came out. I was eighteen back then, and the movie impressed me so much, I saw it three times in a week. Watching it again recently, I realized the movie has aged badly. It has some very strong visual conceits, with its color coded rooms and strictly horizontal camera moves. But the dialogue and the situations are ridiculous, not to mention the gratuitous shocks Greenaway imposes on the audience. To the uninitiated, Greenaway seems to be a masterful artist, but the more you watch great movies by great directors (Fellini, Kiarostami, Ozu, Kurosawa, Paradjanov), you realize he is more of an impostor than a real artist. And Greenaway's misanthropy means his films has no real insight on human nature; the characters in his movies are constructions not flesh-and-blood people. There is not denying he is a visually talented artist, but his take is somewhat shallow. In any case, right now he belongs more to the art world than to the cinema world, and he probably feels more at home that way.

5 out of 5 stars Sumptuous.......2007-02-16

Visually, sexually, emotionally. This is one of the very best movies I have ever seen.

5 out of 5 stars A thorough critique of human greed & excess........2007-02-04

This films covers pretty much all the savage aspects of humanity and shows, in the very end, the ultimate triumph of Eros (life instinct) over Thanatos (death instinct) by using, ironically, the very tools of the latter! This is certainly not a movie for those who watch movies for "entertainment purposes" (i.e., escapism, fantasy, etc.,) For those who truly appreciate this film, it's a feast for the mind and senses!

1 out of 5 stars Torture for art's sake???.......2007-02-03

This over the top art flick makes some snobby reference to the emerging middle class into money and power. Apparently in England that is a bad thing. This country has a branch of government (the house of lords) that only requires you are born of certain families and you get to write laws that affect everyone ELSE. Anyway the director and writer is an ARTIST so he is above it all apparently and he has a self made man portrayed as a brute, criminal and torturer. That's what happens when you are not born from the proper noble stock. The worlds biggest fashion victim designer Jean Paul Gaultier is responsible for the costumes and the talented actors involved in this joke hopefully fired their agents by now. Call me too sensitive but I don't enjoy watching a 10 year old boy get slowly stabbed in the stomach nor am I a big fan of torture for arts sake.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • "Bon apetit, Albert, that's French"
  • Good, but flawed
  • Sumptuous
  • A thorough critique of human greed & excess.
  • Torture for art's sake???
 The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
Starring: Richard Bohringer , Michael Gambon , Helen Mirren , Alan Howard , and Tim Roth
Director: Peter Greenaway
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Ron HowardRon Howard | Comedy Directors | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
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Bohringer, RichardBohringer, Richard | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Cook, RonCook, Ron | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Dury, IanDury, Ian | ( D ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Gambon, MichaelGambon, Michael | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Henfrey, JanetHenfrey, Janet | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Howard, AlanHoward, Alan | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Kingston, AlexKingston, Alex | ( K ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Mirren, HelenMirren, Helen | ( M ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Olsen, GaryOlsen, Gary | ( O ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Ross, WillieRoss, Willie | ( R ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Roth, TimRoth, Tim | ( R ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Smith, LizSmith, Liz | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Stewart, EwanStewart, Ewan | ( S ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Greenaway, PeterGreenaway, Peter | ( G ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
ComedyComedy | British Cinema | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
GeneralGeneral | British Cinema | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
FranceFrance | European Cinema | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
NetherlandsNetherlands | European Cinema | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
ComedyComedy | By Genre | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
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DVDs Under $14.99DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
( C )( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. The Belly of an Architect
  2. Hussy
  3. A Zed & Two Noughts
  4. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone
  5. The Draughtsman's Contract

ASIN: B000059LGL
Release Date: 2001-03-13

Amazon.com essential video

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 Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars "Bon apetit, Albert, that's French".......2007-06-05

Revenge has never been served that well - deliciously and artistically. The visuals, the costumes, the set decoration, the changing colors cinematography and the soundtrack in this black comedy are stunning - the grandmasters were working on the movie - Peter Greenaway, first and foremost a painter and a damn fine one, his brilliant cinematographer Sasha Verny, his astounding composer Michael Nyman who used for the movie the incredible "Memorial", and Jean-Paul Gaultier who designed the costumes. It also helped to have Helen Mirren (as the long suffering wife, Georgina who in the end will serve her husband very well cooked revenge) and Michael Gambon (Albert-the thief, the gangster, the embodiment of pure evil and the owner of the swank restaurant) as two stars. Alan Howard plays a regular guest to whom Georgina is attracted and carries on an affair with in the restaurant's restrooms and later in the back rooms, with the help of the Artist-cook (Richard Bohringer). Every frame of each Greenaway's movie looks and feels like an exquisite painting. "A Zed and two Naughts" is Greenaway's homage and admiration for Vermeer; The Draughtsman's Contract quite openly refers to Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour and other French and Italian artists. "The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover" would bring to mind Rembrandt but I see Peter Greenaway as Hieronymus Bosch of the cinema - the creator of enormously beautiful, divine canvas depicting all horrors of hell that only humans can inflict on one another.

3 out of 5 stars Good, but flawed.......2007-03-26

I saw this in 1990, shortly after it came out. I was eighteen back then, and the movie impressed me so much, I saw it three times in a week. Watching it again recently, I realized the movie has aged badly. It has some very strong visual conceits, with its color coded rooms and strictly horizontal camera moves. But the dialogue and the situations are ridiculous, not to mention the gratuitous shocks Greenaway imposes on the audience. To the uninitiated, Greenaway seems to be a masterful artist, but the more you watch great movies by great directors (Fellini, Kiarostami, Ozu, Kurosawa, Paradjanov), you realize he is more of an impostor than a real artist. And Greenaway's misanthropy means his films has no real insight on human nature; the characters in his movies are constructions not flesh-and-blood people. There is not denying he is a visually talented artist, but his take is somewhat shallow. In any case, right now he belongs more to the art world than to the cinema world, and he probably feels more at home that way.

5 out of 5 stars Sumptuous.......2007-02-16

Visually, sexually, emotionally. This is one of the very best movies I have ever seen.

5 out of 5 stars A thorough critique of human greed & excess........2007-02-04

This films covers pretty much all the savage aspects of humanity and shows, in the very end, the ultimate triumph of Eros (life instinct) over Thanatos (death instinct) by using, ironically, the very tools of the latter! This is certainly not a movie for those who watch movies for "entertainment purposes" (i.e., escapism, fantasy, etc.,) For those who truly appreciate this film, it's a feast for the mind and senses!

1 out of 5 stars Torture for art's sake???.......2007-02-03

This over the top art flick makes some snobby reference to the emerging middle class into money and power. Apparently in England that is a bad thing. This country has a branch of government (the house of lords) that only requires you are born of certain families and you get to write laws that affect everyone ELSE. Anyway the director and writer is an ARTIST so he is above it all apparently and he has a self made man portrayed as a brute, criminal and torturer. That's what happens when you are not born from the proper noble stock. The worlds biggest fashion victim designer Jean Paul Gaultier is responsible for the costumes and the talented actors involved in this joke hopefully fired their agents by now. Call me too sensitive but I don't enjoy watching a 10 year old boy get slowly stabbed in the stomach nor am I a big fan of torture for arts sake.
The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover
    Starring: Richard Bohringer , Michael Gambon , Helen Mirren , Alan Howard , and Tim Roth
    Director: Peter Greenaway
    Manufacturer: Universal
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GeneralGeneral | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
    GeneralGeneral | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
    ASIN: B000AMHJQG

    Product Description

    Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o Arabic (subtitles) o Danish (subtitles) o Dutch (subtitles) o English (subtitles) o Finnish (subtitles) o French (subtitles) o German (subtitles) o Hebrew (subtitles) o Italian (subtitles) o Norwegian (subtitles) o Portugese (subtitles) o Russian (subtitles) o Spanish (subtitles) o Swedish (subtitles) o Turkish (subtitles) o English (Dolby Digital 2.0) o German (Dolby Digital 2.0) o Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0) o Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: This is probably Peter Greenaway's most famous (or infamous) film, which first shocked audiences at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and then on both sides of the Atlantic. A gang leader (Michael Gambon), accompanied by his wife (Helen Mirren) and his associates, entertains himself every night in a fancy French restaurant that he has recently bought. Having tired of her sadistic, boorish husband, the wife finds herself a lover (Alan Howard) and makes love to him in the restaurant's coziest places with the silent permission of the cook (Richard Bohringer). Though less cerebral than Greenaway's other films, featuring deadly passions reminiscent of Jacobean revenge tragedies of the early 17th century, the picture still offers the director's usual ironic and paradoxical comments on the relations between eating and sex, love and death. The film is at once funny and horrific, and those who are not used to Greenaway's peculiar style might be even disgusted or shocked; however, one might mention Sacha Vierny's brilliant camerawork, Jean-Paul Gaultier's gaudily stylized costumes, and Michael Nyman's somber, pulsating music, which will haunt the viewer long after the film's end. Special Features: o Interactive Menu o Scene Access o Trailer(s) o Uncut
    The Cook Thief, His Wife And Her Lover [PAL, Region 2, Import]
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      		The Cook Thief, His Wife And Her Lover [PAL, Region 2, Import]

      ProductGroup: DVD
      Binding: DVD

      GeneralGeneral | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video
      GeneralGeneral | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
      Product Features:
      • Region 2 encoding (Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Middle East including Egypt).
      • Requires multi-region DVD player in the US.

      ASIN: 8301132086

      Product Description

      The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is both adored and detested for its combination of sumptuous beauty and revolting decadence. Few directors polarise audiences in the same way as Peter Greenaway, a filmmaker as influenced by Jacobean revenge tragedy and 17th-century painting as by the French New Wave. A vile, gluttonous thief (Michael Gambon) spews hate and abuse at a restaurant run by a stoic French cook (Richard Bohringer), but under the thief's nose his wife (the ever-sensuous Helen Mirren) conducts an affair with a bookish lover (Alan Howard). Clothing (by avant-garde designer Jean-Paul Gaultier) changes colour as the characters move from room to room. Nudity, torture, rotting meat, and Tim Roth at his sleaziest all contribute the atmosphere of decay and excess. Not for everyone, but for some, essential.

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