Carnivore Reflux + The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover 1989 – 2006 Ages 18+

Production still from Carnivore Reflux 2006 / Director: Eddie White, James Calvert / Image courtesy: Halfbrick Studios / View full image
When
2.45pm, Sun 16 Oct 2022 (131 mins)
Where
Gallery of Modern Art & Cinema A
Accessibility
- Wheelchair Accessible
About
Carnivore Reflux
'In their lifetime the average meat-eating human will consume; 10 cows, 1/2 tonne of fish, 760 chickens, 37 sheep and 42 pigs.' Screen Australia
Ages 12+ | Contains mature themes
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
A cruel, dark and opulent study of lust and vengeance, The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover is a visually striking exploration of greed and excess.
Albert Spica (Michael Gambon) is a vulgar thief who presides over an elegant London restaurant with his entourage of cronies and his beaten and degraded wife Georgina (Helen Mirren). Each night the head chef prepares a lavish menu to be consumed by the barbaric and gluttonous mobster. When Georgina makes eye contact with the gentle Michael (Alan Howard) at an adjacent table, it’s not long before both begin meeting secretly in the bathroom and kitchen. When Albert discovers his wife’s infidelity he carries out a violent retribution on her lover that triggers a more savage retaliation from Georgina and the restaurant’s staff.
Part black comedy, Jacobean tragedy and political satire, Peter Greenaway’s restaurant can be read as microcosm for the excesses of modern society — what Oscar Wilde characterised as “a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing” —and draws upon Antonin Artaud’s concept of the theatre of cruelty to echo the angry reality of living in Britain in the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher.
R18+ | Contains occasional graphic violence, sexual scenes
Film Details
Carnivore Reflux
- Directors: Eddie White, James Calvert
- Producers: Sam White, Hugh Nguyen
- Script: Eddie White
- Editor: David Ngo
- Production Company: The People's Republic of Animation
- Print Source: National Film and Sound Archive Australia
- Rights: Halfbrick Studios
- Shooting Format: Digital
- Screening Format: DCP
- Year: 2006
- Runtime: 7 minutes
- Language: English
- Sound: Stereo
- Colour: Colour
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover
- Director: Peter Greenaway
- Script: Peter Greenaway
- Producer: Kees Kasander
- Cinematographer: Sacha Vierny
- Editor: John Wilson
- Production Companies: Allartis, Elsevier-Vendex Film Beheer, Allarts Cook, Erato Films, Film Inc
- Print Source: Park Circus
- Rights: Park Circus
- Shooting Format: 35mm
- Screening Format: DCP
- Year: 1989
- Runtime: 124 minutes
- Country: United Kingdom
- Languages: Spanish, (with English subtitles)
- Sound: Stereo
- Colour: Colour