Delicatessen (1991, R)

As far as directorial debuts go, this one is pretty singular.  Equal parts post-apocalyptic horror, surrealist comedy, and whimsical romance, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s first film is really something.  While I think almost every film of his that follows is better done, it’s still a striking introduction to his talent and unique vision (premise spoilers.)

Who knows what horrors have befallen mankind in the leadup to our story, but we feel the effects of them in full fource.  The chiefest is this:  food is incredibly scarce.  Bags of corn and lentils are used as currency, people brawl in stairwells over a parcel that may have food inside, and the landlord of one particular apartment building, a butcher named Clapet, has an unconventional way of keeping his renters well-fed.  When former clown Louison answers Clapet’s newspaper ad looking for a handyman, the butcher’s daughter Julie tries to warn him why Clapet was really trying to entice a stranger to his building.

Yep, it’s a post-apocalyptic cannibalism comedy, and it’s a weirdly charming one.  The building is inhabited with Jeunet’s usual brand of quirky characters – the rich man’s unstable wife whose increasingly-convoluted suicide attempts keep falling through, the old man breeding snails and frogs for food in his flooded apartment – and that’s before we get to ruthless but paradoxically loving Clapet, nearsighted romantic Julie, and imaginative oddball Louison.  This is a film with musical saw interludes, bubble blowing, nonconsensual midnight amputations, a sonata set to squeaking bedsprings, and a disguise made of wastepaper.  Oh yeah, and there’s a secret society of rebel vegetarians called Troglodytes who live in the sewers, who are awesome.  Nothing quite like this movie.

The tone shifts wildly on a dime from scary to silly to sweet, but it mostly holds together well.  Jeunet’s loving attention to inventive detail comes through loud and clear in the production design, which is somehow dirty and rundown but lovely and sort of magical at the same time.  The story is pretty wild and takes a number of tangents that are basically there for flavor, which is fairly par for the course for Jeunet, although narratively, this might be his roughest work.  It’s interesting how all of his films are so different from another and yet so similar.  It’s true, though; Delicatessen doesn’t look or act much like Amélie, for instance, but I bet both could be easily picked out of a lineup.

Dominique Pinon appears in all of Jeunet’s movies, but this is the only one that he stars in.  He’s a delightful Louison, a comic hero with a romantic streak and a penchant for the goofy.  Other Jeunet regulars include Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Clapet, Ticky Holgado and Rufus as renters, and Dominique Bettenfeld as a Troglodyte.

Warnings

Violence and grotesque references, sexual content, language, and disturbing themes (including suicide.)