The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Lust...Murder...Dessert. Bon Appetit!
1989 | 124m | English
Popularity: 2 (history)
| Director: | Peter Greenaway |
|---|---|
| Writer: | Peter Greenaway |
| Staring: |
| The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husband's restaurant. | |
| Release Date: | Oct 13, 1989 |
|---|---|
| Director: | Peter Greenaway |
| Writer: | Peter Greenaway |
| Genres: | Drama, Crime |
| Keywords | sexuality, allegory, cooking, restaurant, sadism, satire, crime boss, sociopath, murder, surrealism, brutality, avant-garde, public humiliation, stray dog, abusive husband, french cuisine, adulterous wife, cannibalism, violence |
| Production Companies | Allarts, Allarts Cook, Erato Films, Erbograph Co., Film4 Productions, Elsevier-Vendex Film Beheer |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $7,724,701
Budget: $2,300,000 |
| Updates |
Updated: Jul 30, 2025 Entered: Apr 13, 2024 |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Sharon Howard-Field | Casting |
| Sacha Vierny | Director of Photography |
| Ben van Os | Production Design |
| Garth Marshall | Sound Designer |
| Jan Roelfs | Production Design |
| Nigel Heath | Sound Effects |
| Sara Meerman | Makeup Artist |
| Sjoerd Didden | Makeup Effects |
| Chris Laurence | Musician |
| Tom Buchanan | Boom Operator |
| Gerrit Martijn | First Assistant Director |
| Julian Rodd | First Assistant Editor |
| Michael Nyman | Original Music Composer |
| John Wilson | Editor |
| Peter Greenaway | Screenplay, Director |
| Jean-Paul Gaultier | Costume Design |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Pascale Dauman | Co-Producer |
| Denis Wigman | Co-Producer |
| Daniel Toscan du Plantier | Co-Producer |
| Kees Kasander | Producer |
| Organization | Category | Person | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cannes Film Festival | Best Actor | Michael Gambon | Won |
| Cannes Film Festival | Best Picture | Peter Greenaway | Nominated |
Popularity History
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| 2024 | 4 | 23 | 36 | 15 |
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| 2024 | 9 | 15 | 23 | 11 |
| 2024 | 10 | 25 | 53 | 11 |
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| 2024 | 12 | 17 | 32 | 11 |
| 2025 | 1 | 16 | 28 | 10 |
| 2025 | 2 | 13 | 20 | 3 |
| 2025 | 3 | 6 | 19 | 1 |
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| 2025 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
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| 2025 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2025 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
Trending Position
| Year | Month | High | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 10 | 859 | 877 |
Having previously watched Greenaway's 'Prospero's Books', basically from the same era, one definitely gets a sense of the auteur, of great visualizing prowess in the Welsh native. I adore watching Helen Mirren from ANY era, but particularly here, in between the young adulthood beauty she displayed i ... n Michael Powell's 'Age of Consent', through the remarkably absurd and audacious 'Caligula', straight to the sophisticated and very dangerous gorgeousness displayed in 'The Comfort of Strangers'. It's great to see any dude who's mean to a beautiful woman get their comeuppance (particularly the wealthy--it offers a sort of 'wish fulfillment' for the 99% of us), and the climax here is one of cinema's most articulate presentation of that phenomenon. It definitely made me wish to see the rest of both Greenaway's movies and of Mirren's performances. Well worth the acquired taste necessary for this sort of delicacy.