Peter Greenaway's lavish 1989 drama is one gorgeously debauched art feast that deserves repeated viewing – especially in HD.
Filmmaker Peter Greenaway was at his peak when he made this 1989 black comedy drama about a London gangster whose barbaric actions results in murder, torture and cannibalism being served up in a high-class restaurant.
Shot with a lavish chiaroscuro eye to the Dutch masters and Caravaggio, and adorned in the bondage costuming of Jean Paul Gautier, this violent operatic tragi-comedy is Greenaway’s cinematic pièce de résistance.
Featuring a stella cast, including Michael Gambon’s as Albert Spica, the corpulent ‘thief’ who has pretensions of being a gourmet and Helen Mirren as his battered ‘wife’ Georgina, alongside Tim Roth, Liz Smith, Ciarán Hinds and Alex Kingston; and featuring a stunning score from Michael Nyman, including his haunting 12-minute Memorial, this is one gorgeously debauched art feast that deserves repeated viewing - especially in HD.
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is out on Blu-ray from Fabulous Films in the UK.
