When churlish mobster Albert Spica (Michael Gambon) acquires the upscale French restaurant Le Hollandais in London, he dines there nightly with his long-suffering wife, Georgina (Helen Mirren), and a retinue of henchmen, including Tim Roth, effectively scaring off the clientele with his bad manners. Georgina is especially disgusted by him and soon begins an affair with another restaurant guest, Michael (Alan Howard). Despite their efforts to keep it a secret, Spica discovers the affair and commits a gruesome act of violence, prompting Georgina to stage an elaborate, full-course revenge. With costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier and a score by Michael Nyman, Peter Greenaway’s arthouse blockbuster still shocks and surprises.

“If the most crass and sadistic people gained power, what would happen to the social order, to art and, above all, to love? This is the question Peter Greenaway explores in his elegant, stylized and brutal new film…. Mr. Greenaway turns this tale of a bullying criminal and his unfaithful wife into something profound and extremely rare: a work so intelligent and powerful that it evokes our best emotions and least civil impulses, so esthetically brilliant that it expands the boundaries of film itself.” —Caryn James, New York Times