Delicatessen (Special Edition)
by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Karin Viard, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Pascal BenezechDirector: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro
Brand: Lions Gate
Writer: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writer: Marc Caro
Writer: Gilles Adrien
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
Published: 1987
DVD Release Date: 2008-08-26
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Delicatessen (Special Edition)
Movie Review: Delightfully indelicate
Summary: 5 Stars
You probably know him best for "Amelie" and "A Very Long Engagement," one an adorably surreal little love story, and the other a sepia-toned story of a girl looking for her lover.
But Jean-Pierre Jeunet did an entirely different kind of comedy in "Delicatessen," a wicked black comedy that deals with... um... er.... cannibalism. As in, people eating people. The resulting movie is a truly twisted, dark story populated by the strangest, oddest characters that the writer could possibly have imagined -- cannibal butchers, rebel vegetarians, and ex clowns. And hoo, is it funny!
It's the postapocalyptic future, where food is so scarce that grain is used as money, and meat is completely gone. The setting is an apartment building run by a local butcher Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), who feeds his tenants in an unusual way: he hires assistants, then turns them into tomorrow's din-din. His newest assistant is the gentle vegetarian ex-clown Louison (Dominic Pinon).
But the butcher's plans get thrown for a loop when his cello-playing daughter Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac) falls for Stanley and (unsurprisingly) wants to save her love from a fate worse than entrees. So she contacts the vegetarian resistance -- the sewer-dwelling Troglodytes -- and tricks them into invading her father's house, on the night when he plans to slaughter Louison. Then things get really weird.
Okay, let's get this straight: cannibalism is not funny. It's sick and evil and grotesque.
But comedies about cannibalism CAN be very funny, if done well -- and "Delicatessen" is done very, very well. It manages to be a funny comedy in the tradition of Terry Gilliam, with the warped direction, surreal direction and strange settings, as well as some deeply, horribly funny characters. What was later precious in "Amelie" is weirdly ominous here... not that that's a bad thing. It's quite suitable, actually.
It's also a challenge to create such a dark, bleak setting and somehow inject lots of dark, offbeat comedy into it. For example, one sex scene is juxtaposed against various activities (carpet beating, cello playing) -- all in the same rhythm. It's a moment of pure comic skill. But at the same time, Jeunet slips a bittersweet love story into the middle of the strangeness, relying on Pinon and Dougnac's strong chemistry and relatively innocent characters.
The oddities of the characters in this little hotel are what take this dark comedy to the next level: a tough postman, a pair of brothers who make "moo" boxes, and an aristocratic old lady who goes to great -- and unsuccessful -- lengths to kill herself, Rube Goldberg-style. Julie and the innocent Louison are the bright spot of normalcy and love, but the Troglodytes are a bit over-the-top. Really, must they be THAT dumb?
"Delicatessen" is an acquired taste. Okay, now that I've got that out of my system, here's the real end of the review: Jean-Pierre Jeunet's dark comedy is a bit hard to swallow at first, but the wickedly funny characters and offbeat script will win you over.
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