Sex & Food in Cinema Series
“I need it.”
The daring rendezvous scene.
“
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” is director Peter Greenaway’s brilliant, innovative, disturbing, lurid entre into the Romance Crime genre. Greenaway fans are rightfully anguished about the pitiful box office showing (a distressing $7.7 million for the 1989 feature), but that comes with the remote territory of a Greenaway film. Leads Georgina Spica (Helen Mirren), the abused, frustrated wife of gutter louse “The Thief” and restauranteur-wannabe Albert Spica (Michael Gambon), who spends, it feels, a third of the film in vulgar chatter between bellowing Georgiiiiiinnnnnna and mauling her, slam down performances that shine, shine, shine under Greenaway’s direction and script. The bookish “Lover” Michael, played by Alan Howard and “The Cook,” Richard Bohringer as Richard Boars, round out the principle cast.
Emotionally violent and visceral (no spoilers, please!), noted for its expansive nudity, the theatrical cinematography of Sacha Vierny, minimalist Michael Nyman’s score (a frequent collaborator with Greenaway) and Jean-Paul Gaultier’s sexy, ornate, hybrid costumes (Madonna made use of his talents for the “Cone Bra” in her 1990 Blond Ambition concert tour), all these elements pushed the film into the cult favorite lane years after release. Critic Roger Ebert handed it four out of four stars. (Read Ebert’s review. )
In this scene, in Albert’s restaurant and thug hangout Le Hollandais, Georgina and Michael sneak surreptitious looks at one another while eating dessert as The Thief rumbles and booms. Georgina excuses herself to the ladies’ room, soon followed by The Lover. It’s their first encounter, and they don’t exchange a single word.
Clip notes
1. “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” (1989) Director: Peter Greenaway.
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover, by Peter Greenaway (1989)
“I need t.” First encounter between Georgina and Michael, “The Lover.”
ALBERT
Georgina! Welcome back. Did you wipe the seat before you parked your bum? You never know what you can catch these days. Every toilet seat is a minefield. That’s for you. Richard thought I might like to taste it, personal compliments of the chef. Eat it. I didn’t fancy it, it smelt off. Iris got a canker on her bum from sitting on a loo seat. The mechanic across the road poured battery acid down the WC to clear it. Some of it splashed on the seat. Iris ran screaming into the street, her backside hissing. She hasn’t been the same since. She strips the same but never with her back to the audience. She had to change her act. Now it’s more full-frontal.
ALBERT
Where are you going?
GEORGINA
I left my lighter in the toilet.
ALBERT
Gawd’s sake. You don’t need it. Richard, I’m going to ban smoking in here. Tomorrow, the signs are going up. You want to thicken your French accent up a bit, mate, like you’ve just come over from Paris. Give them a bit of that ooh-la-la stuff. Bit more of that “parlez-vous francais?”
RICHARD
Then you would not understand me, Mr. Spica.
ALBERT
I don’t know. I’ve always been able to understand French letters.
GEORGINA and MICHAEL, THE LOVER
[end scene]