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ARTX-071 · acquired 1989 · running time 124m
Peter Greenaway · 1989

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

You are what you eat.

Provisional dossier. Metrics derived from the systematic pipeline (method v1.1-metric-fix); curatorial reading pending. The shape below is what the open record has produced so far — read it as a draft, not a verdict.

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The Reading

Lexicon ↗
Consensus
Extreme100

Resolved — wide, durable agreement across critic and audience record.

Friction
Present39

Simmering — disagreement exists but has not hardened.

Obsession
Subdued16

Inert — the work has receded from active discourse.

Residual Haunting
Subdued16

Quiet — the work does not follow viewers beyond the screening.

Symbolic Density
Elevated72

Layered — sustained interpretive activity; the film is being decoded.

Cult Formation
Subdued25

Mainstream — no distinct devotional community has formed.

Formal Risk
Subdued12

Conventional — works within accepted shapes and structures.

Emotional Voltage
Elevated58

Charged — physiological reactions documented: tears, tension, unease.

Accessibility
Elevated66

Open — most viewers can enter without special context.

Reach
Extreme78

Saturated — a shared reference in the general cultural vocabulary.

Progeny
Elevated58

Generative — a clear aesthetic lineage can be traced through subsequent work.

Cultural Arc
Present26

Revised — time has shifted the reading somewhat; the initial verdict has softened or hardened.

Transgression
Present47

Uncomfortable — touches sensitive territory but does not breach social limits.

Cultural Afterlife

1989 → 2026
1989
1994
1999
2004
2009
2014
2019
2024
1989 · release
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover released.
release / rediscovery / criterion
rejection / meme / wound
academic adoption

Discourse Factions

analytical
100%

The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) directed by Peter Greenaway. Curated baseline artifact for metric calibration and systematic scoring initialization.

Recurring Symbols

    Adjacent Pressure