Review of Delicatessen (1991) by Ulinsky S — 21 Jul 2011

Delicatessen in terms of style and content, is what I would imagine a seaside resort would look like circa 1930, an even closer similarity would be an old fashioned carnival, full of wild performers, loud noises, beautiful colours with just a hint of danger.

This is a film that could have only come from the warped imaginations of Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whose odd retro (highly Gilliam) influenced look at France produced two back-to-back visual masterpieces.

Since the dissolve of there partnership much of the praise has been heaped out to Jeunet, who as yet is the only one of the two to direct a solo project, but after his Amelie (2001) proved to be a frothy, romantic (not to mention light hearted) fantasy, it would seem that the dark theme and visual design is pure Caro.

This revelation only makes the partnership greater, we can now look back at the films they made as a team and see the contrasting play of light and dark. Delicatessen is a wonderfully rich film, full of fantastic set pieces (Julie's dream of Dr Livingston's monkey tea party quickly turning nasty is just one of many standouts), dreams mix freely with reality, never letting the audience in on the joke until the last minute.

The acting is also a plus (usually very poor in highly stylised films) showing clearly how passionate the two film-makers where about creating a fully realistic world. Jean-Claude Dreyfus and Marie-Laure Dougnac are great as the Father-daughter owners of the run down apartment block, and Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon carries the film with great skill.

Delicatessen is a delicious black comedy that shouldn't be dismissed as empty fantasy, one that definitely should be enjoyed by all. 10/10.