The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989, UK/Fr.)

In writer/director Peter Greenaway's cruel, over-the-top, truth-telling film - it was designed as a metaphoric and allegorical criticism showing contempt for the wasteful and barbaric upper-class consumer society in Western civilization (specifically 80's Thatcherism and Reaganism). It established linkages between art, class structure, gastronomy and bodily functions, and sex and death. The film's tagline was: LUST...MURDER...DESSERT. BON APPETIT!

The sensational film's putrescence, debasement and excesses (sadism, cannibalism, torture, fornication, puke, child abuse, and rotting fish and meat) and scatological themes (force-feeding of excrement (termed coprophagy), urination on victims, and more) forced the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to give the film an "X" rating. After being denied an appeal, the film was originally released unrated by the producers, and then given an NC-17 rating by the time of its video release. An alternative R-rated version cut out about 30 minutes of footage.

In all of cinematic history (as of 2020), it remained the fourth highest-grossing NC-17 rated film at $7.7 million, slightly behind Henry & June (1990) at $11.6 million; it was also behind the # 2 NC-17 film, Showgirls (1995) at $20.4 million, and the # 1 film Last Tango in Paris (1972) at $36.1 million.

It told about a number of real (but also symbolic) characters, who spent much of their time at a trendy haute cuisine London restaurant called Le Hollandais:

• Albert Spica (Michael Gambon), the THIEF, a nouveau-riche British (London) gangster - a gluttonous, odious, uncouth, anti-intellectual, unsophisticated, despicable and maniacal boss of the restaurant he had acquired
• Georgina (Helen Mirren), the WIFE, Albert's reluctant, desperate, battered and much-humiliated Wife
• Michael (Alan Howard), HER LOVER, a bookwormish patron or diner, a bookshop owner
• Richard Boarst (Richard Bohringer), the COOK, the burdened manager of the restaurant and the kitchen's head French chef

The Banquet Table	The Thief (Albert Spica)
The Wife (Georgina)	Her Lover (Michael)

• Albert dined and presided over a sumptuous banquet every night (over a nine evening period). He held court around a table where he talked about food, excrement and sex, and surrounded himself with various lackeys and henchmen. He harrassed and brutalized both the staff and patrons of the restaurant
• the huge restaurant that was the centerpiece of the film was composed of four rooms or sections, each of which was color-coded:
  • the kitchen and storage area (deep jungle-green)
  • the main dining room (hellish blood-red), modeled after the famous Dutch painting The Banquet of the Officers of the St George Militia Company in 1616 that was hung on the restaurant's wall
  • the restrooms (white)
  • the adjacent parking lot (cold dark blue)
• to escape from her abusive husband, the adulterous and unfaithful Georgina snuck away for hungry trysts with her Lover (during visits to a rest-room stall, kitchen and bakery pantry, and in a freezer, filmed with unflattering light). When Albert came upon his wife hiding in the stall with Michael, he asked: "What are you doing in there, Georgie? You playin' with yourself? That's not allowed. That's my property, you're not allowed to fiddle with it. Now come on, open the door, I'll show you how to wipe yourself."
• on a separate occasion after having sex with Georgina, Michael complimented her eyes, and she responded: "And you have a beautiful prick, Mr. Gynecology."
• Albert learned of their affair when pimped prostitute Patricia (Emer Gillespie) divulged that Georgina and the quiet man at a nearby table always went off together to secretly have sex: "No wonder she hates your guts...No wonder she screws around....You're so bloody blind, you loud-mouthed pig. You'd never even notice... I saw them...Georgie and that Jew...that bloke that sits over there - reading. Haven't you noticed? They always go off to the john together...Why do you think Georgie's been spendin' so much time in the john, ya blind bat! She doesn't have the shits every five minutes"
• enraged, he stuck a fork into Patricia's cheek; soon after, he went after them, forcing the two to retreat (with restaurant help) into the back of a meat truck with putrid smells of rotting food. They were driven to Michael's home/book depository where they were hosed off.
• the brutal Albert decided upon savage, cannibalistic revenge upon the man, and ironically stated and foreshadowed: "I'll bloody find her. I'll find them. I'll bloody find them. I knew it. Scheming tart! I'll bloody find them and I'll bloody kill him! And I'll bloody eat him! I'll kill him and I'll eat him!"
• Michael was killed by force-feeding him with pages from his favorite book
• after her lover's death, Georgina asked the cook Richard to recall for her what he had witnessed about their affair, to make it more real for her - and he reminisced: "I saw him kissing you on the mouth, on the neck, behind your ear. I saw him undressing you. I saw him kissing your breasts. I saw him put his hand between your legs." She also asked what he had witnessed she had done: "I saw you kiss him on the mouth. I saw you lying under him on the floor of the pantry. I saw him take you from behind. I saw you take his penis in your mouth." She began to sob.
• then, Georgina begged for the reluctant Cook to help her - to bake up her lover's corpse (she even tried to persuade him by offering herself): "In memory of us making love in your kitchen and in your fantasies, help me now...In memory of your parents making love, help me now....Cook Michael for me...This was his favorite restaurant. It's also mine. Cook Michael for me"
• the Cook was appalled and thought: "Do you have some idea that by eating him he can become part of you? You can't believe that by eating him you can always be together!" She explained her motive was revenge: "I'm not eating him. Albert is."
• she hosted a private, Friday night function with Albert the prime guest of honor. He was disgusted when he arrived and saw Georgina - he viciously threatened her: "What brings you here, you bitch! I'm very surprised you so brazenly show your face here, you slut... I'll bloody kill you for what you did to me!...And don't think I'm taking you back. I'll make you pay, you slut. Your bottom's going to be very, very sore for weeks. No more books for you, girl. You're staying in under lock and key. There's gonna be no more books or prick-sniffing for you, girl." She only greeted him: "Happy anniversary, Albert," and then clarified: "It's an anniversary that I shall always celebrate, even if you won't. And you won't."
• she described how she had 'cooked up' a "present" for him. There were other guests in attendance who would soon appear -- "And Richard has cooked it for you. Under my instructions...Knowing how you like to eat. Knowing how you like to gorge yourself. And we've brought a few of your friends around." A formal procession of people (those Albert had wronged) brought in the veiled body on a large platter for dinner - his "special treat."
• she removed the cover on the platter - and there was a slow-pan up the length of the cooked corpse as Albert gasped: "Georgie! Jesus! God!" She calmly responded: "No, it's not God, Albert. It's Michael, my lover. You vowed you would kill him, and you did. And you vowed you would eat him. Now eat him." She forced him to eat the warmed-up cadaver ("What's the matter? You have your knife and fork. You do know how to use them. Or have all those carefully-learnt table manners gone to waste?"). Albert pulled out his pistol, but was disarmed and the gun was passed around to Georgina, who then added as she held him at gunpoint: "Eat Albert!...Try the cock, Albert -- it's a delicacy. And you know where it's been."

Georgina: "Eat, Albert!!" - The Thief Forced by the Wife (at Gunpoint) to Consume The Cooked Body of Her Lover

• stunned, Albert took a forkful bite and vomited (he had finally consumed enough), as The Wife encouraged him to eat more: ("Go on, Albert, eat. Bon appetit, Albert. It's French") - and then she shot him to death in the head. He was propelled backward as she condemned him as a "Cannibal." A red curtain closed to end the film.