13. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover (1989)
Poor downtrodden and exquisite Georgina is the wife of gangster Albert, who in a quest to be nouveau riche has acquired a French restaurant. He sits night after night with his cronies, generally scaring away the customers with his uncouth behaviour. Georgina embarks upon a secret affair with a regular diner - bookshop owner Michael - and all is well until Albert finds out and chokes Michael to death with pages from books in his shop. A heartbroken Georgina is determined to make Albert pay in the most hideous way possible. Simultaneously grotesque and visually stunning, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover is Peter Greenaway's masterpiece - there is enforced dog excrement eating, lots of torrid sex scenes and of course the infamous denouement ("Cook Michael for me"), in which Albert discovers revenge is a dish served piping hot. A fiercely intelligent film with striking aesthetic sensibilities, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover is nonetheless terribly perverse in its execution.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
