The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

With this allegory of sex, violence, and cannibalism, Greenaway created one of his most sumptuous and cruel films. It's the work of a mild-mannered dandy who suddenly bares his teeth and dives into his haute cuisine dishes like a wolf. The entire story of this fable about the contrast between barbarism and culture unfolds within a gourmet restaurant adorned with a gigantic canvas by Frans Hals in the dining hall. Passion and deceit among the quartet in the title lead to a reckoning with the spectacular bloodiness and vulgarity of a Jacobin tragedy. However, the brutality is presented in a delightfully aestheticized manner, showcasing an unparalleled sense of composition, visual luxury, and manic attention to detail. Sacha Vierny is responsible for the lustrous color photography full of pictorial references, while Jean-Paul Gautier designed the extravagant costumes.

"A simple tale of adultery, jealousy and revenge, the film is built around four characters, the divisions of the restaurant (each room representing its historical epoch), the tradition of table painting, and the central metaphysical conceit linking mouth with anus, food with feces, and sex with death." - The Virgin Film Guide