Review: Delicatessen (1991)
Review: Delicatessen (1991)
8.5/10
Delicatessen is Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s debut film along with fellow director Marc Caro. It depicts a post-apocalyptic world and a rundown apartment building full of tenants trying to survive the scarcity of food while being stuck with each other, never leaving. It is a dark comedy and under Jeunet who has become known for his oddball characters and combination of circus-like atmosphere, charm and romantic inclinations, the film becomes a wholly original experience.
Post-apocalyptic films in this day and age are a very popular subgenre of storytelling whether it is in film or literature. At this point, the subgenre is becoming a bit tiresome and the shock of seeing a world that barely exists anymore has become desensitized and even expected. Delicatessen, though it was made 20 years ago, forgoes all of the heaviness that comes along with the concept. The characters never leave the apartment building. The only sense of emptiness in the world comes from the outside shots of building which are shrouded in fog and a distinct sense of inactivity. The sense we get of the characters parallel how the tenants probably see each other; as neighbors identified by a few eccentricities and a couple of oddball habits. Jeunet comes close to overdoing it in this aspect but retains himself just enough when he needs to.
Louison (played by the irresistible Domninque Pinon) is an ex-clown who answers an ad from the landlord and butcher Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) to be a tenant. Clapet has placed the ad as part of a recurring scheme he and the fellow tenants are all in on in which the new tenant is killed and eaten as cannibalism as become a controversial but not unheard of result of the food scarcity. The problem is that Clapet’s daughter Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac) falls in love with Louison and begins to put forth her efforts to stop him from being a meal for the tenants.
The film does not focus on plot but on the characters. The majority of the film involves observing the characters in their forced environment and seeing how they function individually and with each other in humerous ways. One way they function as a group unit is in a brilliant scene in which Clapet and Mademoiselle Plusse (Karin Vaird) have sex in a loudly squeaky bed as the other tenants all do their chores to the corresponding rhythm. Carpets are being beaten, walls are being painted, contraptions are being tested and more. As the two pick up the pace, so do the chores. This scene as well as being wonderfully funny shows how dependent they all are on each other in a very strange way and how they have become a unit despite their distaste and avoidance of one another.
The relationship between Louison and Julie is the most successful aspect of Delicatessen. Each is given enough time as characters to move beyond the essentialist development of the supporting characters and not only become people we invest in on their own but become a couple to root for. Julie gets food items like coffee or cookies in the mail and invites him over to eat. She sets up the table and before he arrives, takes off her glasses which makes her nearly blind and rehearses being with him as she tries to see. She counts the steps from the door to the table, practices offering him tea and so forth. When he arrives it not only develops Julie as someone who is both desperate to attract Louison and self-conscious enough to feel that she can only attract someone without her glasses. Their relationship is filled with moments such as these and it makes them a couple that you want to be together.
The film is not without its problems. The last half hour forgoes nearly everything it had built up to display endless destruction to the apartment building and things falling on other things. It loses the story through this and while it is still entertaining and certainly not bad, it almost sacrifices itself for the climax and at a certain point you realize nothing has been happening for a long time. A few of the supporting characters become a bit too eccentric for their own good. While Madame Tapioca (Anne-Marie Pisani) might have been my favorite supporting character her elaborate suicide attempts becomes old and predictable after a while. Only Mademoiselle Plusse, in no small part due to Karin Vaird’s performance, rises above the small box Jenuet, Caro and fellow screenwriter Gilles Adrian have created for her and others.
Delicatessen is an impressively confident debut. Jeunet and Caro know the type of film they wanted to make and while they clearly are testing themselves with their own ideas, most of them happen to work. It is a charming and refreshing entry to the post-apocalyptic subgenre using it as an excuse for an extremely dark comedic situation and an essentialist depiction of its universe and characters. It is very easy to see why this has become a cult favorite and it deserves its earned status as such.
Horrorphile
I saw this at a film festival when it came out and it was definitely the festival highlight. I haven't seen it in years, but I own it on DVD.
Cinema Enthusiast
Thoughts from a Cinephile
Thoughts from a TV Watcher
and it is one of my all time favourite films, I loved its black humour and its dig at civilisation and just how tenuous our collective grip is on being humane.
cheers
fog
Film & TV on DVD
Though City of Lost Children is my favourite Juenet and Caro work, this one has a vibe all its own that I can relish anytime.