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The title credit forDelicatessenreads "Presented by Terry Gilliam," and it's easy to understand why the director ofBrazilwas so supportive of this outrageously black French comedy from 1991. Like Gilliam, French codirectors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro have wildly inventive imaginations that gravitate to the darker absurdities of human behavior, and their visual extravagance is matched by impressive technical skill. Here, making their feature debut, Jeunet and Caro present a postapocalyptic scenario set entirely in a dank and gloomy building where the landlord operates a delicatessen on the ground floor. But this is an altogether meatless world, so the butcher-landlord keeps his customers happy by chopping unsuspecting victims into cutlets, and he's sharpening his knife for a new tenant (French comic actor Dominque Pinon) who's got the hots for the butcher's nearsighted daughter! Delicatessen is a feast (if you will) of hilarious vignettes, slapstick gags, and sweetly eccentric characters, including a man in a swampy room full of frogs, a woman doggedly determined to commit suicide (she never gets its right), and a pair of brothers who make toy sound boxes that "moo" like cows. It doesn't amount to much as a story, but that hardly matters; this is the kind of comedy that springs from a unique wellspring of imagination and inspiration, and it's handled with such visual virtuosity that you can't help but be mesmerized. There's some priceless comedy happening here, some of which is so inventive that you may feel the urge to stand up and cheer. --Jeff Shannon
Delicatessen is...people? This is the first movie by the group who brought us "City of Lost Children" and Philipe Jeunot, the director of "Amalie", "Aliens 4" and many others. Set in a WWII-type setting, "Deliatessen" is the story of the eccentric inhabitants of a French apartment building. Led by an ex-circus clown (the same actor who plays the clones in "City" and is part of the rebel team of "Aliens"), this odd band of misfits lives, loves and eats - eat being the operative word as the apartments are above a meat-sellers shop -the deli of the title - and the butcher himself doles out food in exchange for this that an the other while watching over his suicidal wife and beautiful daughter. OH, and did I mention the SCUBA ninjas? The editing and timing are wonderful, it's truely a hoot to watch - but pay attention or you could get lost in the multiple plotlines.....
A delirious baroque comedy about the future to come!
Among the most surrealistic films ever made, this movie is glorious homage to the invectiveness and imaginary universe of Luis Bunuel, plenty of black humor, powerful doses of cynicism that really captures the physique essence in terms of Jean Epstein. Jeunet and Caro offers us one of the most solid, baroque and formidable black comedies of the Nineties, when one the most sacred icons of the France - the gastronomy - is employed as a device to carve in relief an febrile battle between cannibals, vegetarian militants and a group of innocents who live or survive in a crumbling building ruled by a monster-butcher whose exquisite dishes are product of his perverted mind with a spice of madness.
The film is a true prodigy of kinetic cinematography. The impressive shootings, traveling and camera displacements are simply outstanding. Filmed under sepia tunes the oppressive atmosphere is accurately depicted.
Not for squeamish or delicate stomachs. Consider this one as one of my favorite cult movie of the nineties. Madness is served This is an odd tale, to say the least. The use of exquisite imagery and vibrant sounds really boost this unique story to a higher level. It's a dark comedy, intertwined with a light-hearted romance. Oh yeah, it involves cannibalism. Cicumstances drive good people to do bad things. Like eat each other. You know you're hungry when you chow down on your neighbor. That might be the fate of the new resident, an ex-clown targeted by the butcher. His best chance for survival is with the butcher's daughter, who falls in love with this fresh piece of meat. Can she convince daddy to carve up someone else? Delicatessen is a scrumptious offering for people with different tastes.
