The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989)

Helen Mirren: Georgina

Photos 

Quotes 

• Georgina : Try the cock, Albert. It's a delicacy, and you know where it's been.

• [last lines] 

  Georgina : Cannibal!

• Georgina : [to Richard]  He's dead. They stuffed him with pages torn from his favourite book. Could you cook him?

• [In a book depository] 

  Georgina : Are we safe here?

  Michael : Does Albert read?

• Georgina : Yes! He's a man. He's Jewish and he's from Ethiopia!

  Albert : What?

  Georgina : His mother is a Roman Catholic, he's been imprisoned in South Africa, he's as black as the ace of spades and he probably drinks his own pee!

• Albert : God!

  Georgina : It's not God, Albert. It's Michael, my lover. You vowed you would kill him, and you did. And you vowed you would eat him. Now eat him. What's the matter, Albert? You have your knife and fork. You do know how to use them. Or have all those carefully learned table manners gone to waste?

• Georgina : Bon apetit. It's French...

• Georgina : When you make a menu, how do you price out each dish?

  Richard Borst : I charge a lot for anything black. Grapes, olives, blackcurrants. People like to remind themselves of death, eating black food is like consuming death, like saying, "Death, I'm eating you." Black truffles are the most expensive, and caviar. Death and birth. The end and the beginning. Don't you think it's appropriate that the most expensive items are black? We also charge for vanity. Diet foods have an additional surcharge of 30 percent. Aphrodisiacs, 50 percent.

• [speaking of Albert, the thief] 

  Michael : Where is he now?

  Georgina : He's eating avocado vinaigrette and prawns... with his fingers.

• Georgina : You know what they say about men who hang around ladies' lavatories?

  Albert : What do they say about men who hang around ladies' lavatories?

  Georgina : They're asking to have their illusions shattered.

• Albert : Georgina, try a little harder please!

  Georgina : I go to a good hairdresser.

  Albert : Yes, the best there is.

  Georgina : I go to a good dentist.

  Albert : Yes, yeah, oh yeah. He's Jewish.

  Georgina : I go to a good gynaecologist.

  Albert : You what?

• Georgina : Cook Michael for me.

  Richard Borst : No.

  Georgina : This was his favourite restaurant! It's also mine! Cook Michael for me!

• Georgina : Happy anniversary, Albert.

  Albert : What are you talking about, happy anniversary? It's not my birthday.

  Georgina : No, that's true but it's an anniversary that I shall always celebrate, even if you won't. And you won't.