Language: French Year: 1991
Before Jean-Pierre Jeunet made his cinematic masterpiece with ‘Amelie’, he made a surreal comedy with Marc Caro about the dark goings on in a futuristic French town.
As Delicatessen opens we meet Louison, a new arrival to the eerie town (superbly played by Dominique Pinon a stalwart of French cinema and a Jeunet regular). We quickly learn that a local butcher is in charge of the block of flats where Louison is keen to lodge and that he has more planned for the newcomer than some small repair jobs. As Louison strikes up a friendship with the butchers daughter, the tension unfolds and the depths of the tenants’ madness starts to reveal itself. The only way Louison can seemingly save himself and his new love from the murderous butcher is with assistance from an underground group known as the troglodytes.
This film is unusual to say the least. All the characters in the housing block are caricatures with unusual quirks; one stand out being a man who has flooded his basement flat to create the perfect environment for his snail farm.
Jeunet cleverly merges normally disturbing themes such as murder and cannibalism into very funny, often skilfully constructed scenes including a wonderful set piece where all the tenants are performing mundane tasks to the same rhythm.
This is a film that is visually remarkable and a great example of creative filmmaking.
Before Jean-Pierre Jeunet made his cinematic masterpiece with ‘Amelie’, he made a surreal comedy with Marc Caro about the dark goings on in a futuristic French town.
As Delicatessen opens we meet Louison, a new arrival to the eerie town (superbly played by Dominique Pinon a stalwart of French cinema and a Jeunet regular). We quickly learn that a local butcher is in charge of the block of flats where Louison is keen to lodge and that he has more planned for the newcomer than some small repair jobs. As Louison strikes up a friendship with the butchers daughter, the tension unfolds and the depths of the tenants’ madness starts to reveal itself. The only way Louison can seemingly save himself and his new love from the murderous butcher is with assistance from an underground group known as the troglodytes.
This film is unusual to say the least. All the characters in the housing block are caricatures with unusual quirks; one stand out being a man who has flooded his basement flat to create the perfect environment for his snail farm.
Jeunet cleverly merges normally disturbing themes such as murder and cannibalism into very funny, often skilfully constructed scenes including a wonderful set piece where all the tenants are performing mundane tasks to the same rhythm.
This is a film that is visually remarkable and a great example of creative filmmaking.
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