Product Details

• Actors: Pascal Benezech, Marc Caro, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Ticky Holgado
• Directors: Marc Caro
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Paramount
• VHS Release Date: April 3, 2001
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302662745
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,906 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #18 in	Video > Art House & International > European Cinema > France > Comedy
  #47 in	Video > Art House & International > By Genre > Comedy
  #65 in	Video > Comedy > Black Comedy

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The title credit for Delicatessen reads "Presented by Terry Gilliam," and it's easy to understand why the director of Brazil was so supportive of this outrageously black French comedy from 1991. Like Gilliam, French codirectors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro have wildly inventive imaginations that gravitate to the darker absurdities of human behavior, and their visual extravagance is matched by impressive technical skill. Here, making their feature debut, Jeunet and Caro present a postapocalyptic scenario set entirely in a dank and gloomy building where the landlord operates a delicatessen on the ground floor. But this is an altogether meatless world, so the butcher-landlord keeps his customers happy by chopping unsuspecting victims into cutlets, and he's sharpening his knife for a new tenant (French comic actor Dominque Pinon) who's got the hots for the butcher's nearsighted daughter! Delicatessen is a feast (if you will) of hilarious vignettes, slapstick gags, and sweetly eccentric characters, including a man in a swampy room full of frogs, a woman doggedly determined to commit suicide (she never gets its right), and a pair of brothers who make toy sound boxes that "moo" like cows. It doesn't amount to much as a story, but that hardly matters; this is the kind of comedy that springs from a unique wellspring of imagination and inspiration, and it's handled with such visual virtuosity that you can't help but be mesmerized. There's some priceless comedy happening here, some of which is so inventive that you may feel the urge to stand up and cheer. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightfully indelicate, January 26, 2006

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Delicatessen (DVD)

You probably know him best for "Amelie" and "A Very Long Engagement," but Jean-Pierre Jeunet did an entirely different kind of comedy in "Delicatessen," a wicked black comedy that deals with... um, cannibalism. It's a twisted, dark story populated by the oddest characters that the writer could possibly have imagined -- and man, 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 (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 Troglodytes, and tricks them into invading her father's house, on the night when he plans to slaughter Louison.

Okay, let's get this straight: cannibalism is not funny. But comedies about cannibalism CAN be very funny, if done well. And "Delicatessen" manages to be a funny comedy in the tradition of Terry Gilliam, with the warped direction, surreal direction and strange settings. What was later precious in "Amelie" is weirdly ominous here... not that that's a bad thing.

It's also a challenge to create such a dark, bleak setting and somehow inject 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.

The oddities of the characters 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 a bright spot, 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.

36 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where are the vegetarian terrorists?, December 18, 2001

By	Neil Baker (Canada (originally U.K.)) - See all my reviews

This is the movie that hooked me into the world of Caro and Jeunet and continues to do so right up to the equisite 'Amelie'.
Why is this film not available on dvd? There is more inventiveness, humour and sensuality in five minutes of this film than there is in most full-length Hollywood flicks. If you do happen to chance upon an American movie which smacks of original direction and art design you can bet your bottom Euro that they stole the idea from Marc and Jean-Pierre first.
What was the best thing about Alien Ressurection?
Answer: Dominique Pinon and Ron Perlman (City of Lost Children).
Coincidence? I think not.
Tell your friends to lobby for the release of Delicatessan on dvd. Together we can make the world a happier and more sumptious place!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun!! Where's the DVD?, January 7, 2002

By	P. Evans "pauleky" (Louisville, KY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A bizarre and wonderful film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie) and Marc Caro. I don't like to give too much away, but, suffice to say, it's set in a future world where there's not much meat around. So, the local butcher turns to the only supply left. Then, a circus-performer turned handyman appears and that's when the mayhem starts.

The acting is superb, the cinematography and direction is brilliant and the story is a loopy wonder. Now, all we need is a deluxe DVD edition.

Yes, the film is in French (with subtitles). You'll truly be missing out if you let that keep you from this wonderful film.