Delicatessen **** (1991, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Marie-Laure Dougnac) – Classic Movie Review 6656

French writer-directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s brilliant 1991 Gothic nightmare Delicatessen stars Dominique Pinon as a Louison, circus clown who takes work with a butcher called Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), who is chopping people up. Soon the clown falls for the butcher’s myopic daughter Julie Clapet (Marie-Laure Dougnac), and they become the intended victims of the whole mad household of an apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor. They contact the grain-eating, subterranean troglodytes to try to foil Clapet’s evil plans.

This dazzling French post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy is hugely imaginative and expertly played by the principals, though it is not so much a story as a series of funny and clever gags, stunts and scenes. Much is brilliantly realised on a technical level, and it always looks eye-boggling and wonderfully atmospheric in the cinematography of Darius Khondji and production designs of Marc Caro, Jean-Philippe Carp and Miljen Kreka Kljakovic , Art Direction of Miljen Kreka Kljakovic, Set Decoration of Aline Bonetto and Costume Design of Valérie Pozzo di Borgo.

Arguably, virtuosity is perhaps not quite enough while we look in vain for a well-written yarn like, for example, the one in Arsenic and Old Lace. Still Delicatessen really rattles along, and keeps any possible tedium away by being extraordinarily busy and amazingly inventive, and being commendably economical and brief at 99 minutes. It also hits the tone right by being gruesome but not too violent.

Delicatessen had no Oscar or Golden Globe nomination, and only one Bafta – Best Film not in the English Language – that it failed to win. It won four César awards – Best First Work, Best Screenplay, Best Production Design (Jean-Philippe Carp, Miljen Kreka Kljakovic ) and Best Editing (Hervé Schneid).

Also in the cast are Karin Viard as Mademoiselle Plusse, Ticky Holgado as Marcel Tapioca, Anne-Marie Pisani as Madame Tapioca, Edith Ker as Grandmother, Rufus as Robert Kube, Jacques Mathou as Roger, Howard Vernon as Frog Man, Silvie Laguna as Aurore Interligator, Jean-François Perrier as Georges Interligator, Maurice Lamy as Pank, Eric Averlant as Tourneur and Marc Caro as Fox.

The screenplay is by Jeunet and Caro. Gilles Adrien is also credited for the screenplay and dialogue and Jeunet for the shooting script.

Delicatessen is produced by Claudie Ossard and scored by Carlos D’Alessio.

In February 2017, Jeunet accused Guillermo del Toro of plagiarizing a scene between two children from Delicatessen in his The Shape of Water where Sally Hawkins and Richard Jenkins perform a two-step dance while sitting on a sofa watching an old Hollywood movie. Del Toro told Jeunet: ‘We owe Terry Gilliam everything.’

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6656

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