ABSTRACT
Denudation as the event of political abandonment and mortal exposure constitutes an important concern in The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989), a much-acclaimed film by Peter Greenaway whose employment of an aesthetic of nudity-cum-violence has become an acknowledged trademark. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover develops as an extended metaphor that connects cooking with a genre of painting which, as Norman Bryson puts it, has committed itself to the humble act of ‘looking at the overlooked’. The sadness of nature morte pervades Greenaway's film, which aspires in its own turn to be read within this genre. The counter-force to Albert's bulimia is the Cook's marked anorexia, for Richard may have devoted his life to mixing natural, nourishing substances and preparing elaborate dishes, but he himself never demonstrates any appetite for food.
