Delicatessen (1991) centres
on a handful of strange tenants living above their landlord Clapet’s butcher
shop. In a dystopian France where food is scare and grains are currency, the
tenants are dependent on Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) to provide them with fresh
meat. But they also live in fear of Clapet least they should anger him and end
up in his meat display counter. Unemployed clown Louison (Dominique Pinon) applies
for the handyman job at the building, advertised by Clapet to lure in new
sources of meat. Louison befriends Clapet’s daughter Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac)
and they slowly begin to fall in love, complicating Clapet and the tenant’s
plan to have Louison for dinner.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s film oozes with visual
style and is its greatest strength. The building is silhouetted in a sickly fog,
a looming and foreboding presence rising above the ruins of the neighbouring
buildings. Yellow, brown and grey dominates throughout corridors and the menacing
staircase of the apartment block, making the colours within the individual
apartments pop. Certain images linger in the mind; a small mountain of snail
shells, Rube Goldberg-like contraptions, underground pipes. Cinematographer
Darius Khondji utilises extreme close ups and wide angles, making the tenants
look more peculiar and Clapet more grotesque and maniacal. There is a slight
blur to most of the film, lending it an almost dreamlike quality to the
nightmarish scenario.
The dark, surreal humour is also one of the Delicatessen’s strongest aspects. One
character, Aurore (Silvie Laguna), repeatedly tries to commit suicide yet fails
with each attempt. An underground (literally) group of vegetarian activists,
the Troglodytes, are eager yet hopelessly inept in their missions. Louison
arrives at the butcher’s shop pushing a taxi and Lousion is still charged by the taxi
driver, relieving him of his shoes. The tenants each have their
individual quirks and interact somewhat harmoniously with each other, although
there is the impression that they would quite like to have the last laugh and
eat their annoying neighbour. Delicatessen
is not overly concerned with the dystopian scenario; we never learn what caused
it or if other countries are affected by it, and it doesn’t really matter. The
focus is more on how the characters interact with each other and their ethics
in a desperate situation.
Dominique Pinon as Louison is a modern day Charlie Chaplin in
Delicatessen - sweet-natured, naïve and
an inventive problem solver - watching Pinon performing certain circus skills
is a treat. Marie-Laure Dougnac is equally sweet-natured, slightly clumsy yet
resourceful as Julie, doing her best to protect Louison from her father and his
hungry tenants. Jean-Claude Dreyfus is frightening as the cannibalistic butcher
Clapet but also pragmatic and at times remorseful of his trade. An accomplished
supporting cast brings humour and pathos to the plate.
Delicatessen is a
superb debut from Jeunet and Caro, wonderfully weird and full of black humour
and a visual delight.
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