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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Incredibly funny, September 11, 2008
"Delicatessan" is simply one of the funniest films I've ever seen. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who also gave us the equally quirky and delightful "City of Lost Children," the film begins in a post-apocalyptic and dying world in which nothing grows and ends in a reborn one where blue skies and fruitful earth has returned. The action takes place in a half-ruined apartment building whose residents are kept from starving by the Sweeney Todd-like practices of their landlord, a butcher. But the butcher's daughter, wonderfully played by Marie-Laure Dougnac, and the ex-clown who comes to work for her father, put an end to the nefarious practice.
The visuals of the film are incredible. To underscore the theme of butchery and meat-eating, the very walls of the apartment building, in both color and texture, look vaguely like meat. Long drainage pipes, which the camera frequently follows from the inside, look like esophagus and stomach passageways and intestines.
The visual surreality is matched by the surreal characters: a rich resident named Aurore whose Rube Goldberg-complicated attempts at suicide all end in failure; a resident who lives in the basement, regularly floods his dwelling to cultivate mold, slime, and snails, which he then devours with gusto; two roommates who make those little cans which, when turned upside down, emit a lugubrious "moo"; a family with demon kids and an aged grandmom who eventually gets turned into pate; the butcher himself who loves his work; the clown who cames to dinner; and a bunch of revolutionaries who call themselves the Troglydites and are as inept as a bunch of Keystone Cops.
An incredibly rich, hilarious, satisfying film. Easily 5+ stars.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delightfully indelicate, June 6, 2008
You probably know him best for "Amelie" and "A Very Long Engagement," one an adorably surreal little love story, and the other a sepia-toned story of a girl looking for her lover.
But Jean-Pierre Jeunet did an entirely different kind of comedy in "Delicatessen," a wicked black comedy that deals with... um... er.... cannibalism. As in, people eating people. The resulting movie is a truly twisted, dark story populated by the strangest, oddest characters that the writer could possibly have imagined -- cannibal butchers, rebel vegetarians, and ex clowns. And hoo, 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 Clapet (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 sewer-dwelling Troglodytes -- and tricks them into invading her father's house, on the night when he plans to slaughter Louison. Then things get really weird.
Okay, let's get this straight: cannibalism is not funny. It's sick and evil and grotesque.
But comedies about cannibalism CAN be very funny, if done well -- and "Delicatessen" is done very, very well. It manages to be a funny comedy in the tradition of Terry Gilliam, with the warped direction, surreal direction and strange settings, as well as some deeply, horribly funny characters. What was later precious in "Amelie" is weirdly ominous here... not that that's a bad thing. It's quite suitable, actually.
It's also a challenge to create such a dark, bleak setting and somehow inject lots of dark, 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 and relatively innocent characters.
The oddities of the characters in this little hotel 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 the bright spot of normalcy and love, 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.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of the best french films, October 30, 2009
This is a great movie. Enjoyable all the way throw,that provided many of laughs.
A dark comedy about a butcher who butchers people then sales the meat to tenants in the appartments up above.I love the settings of the film i belive its taken place in the 50s.Great acting great storyline.This film gets five stars from me.
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