In a bleak landscape of an unknown time a group of people survive in a run-down apartment building in France. Food is scarce and the city is burned out, appearing as though it is a time of war and humanity survives in the shadows of what remains. The currency is now based on grain like corn and lentils that hold all the value.
Julie lives with her father the butcher in this ramshackle building, where everyday is a fight for survival. The desperation for food has driven the tenants into a devil’s pact. They lure down-on-their-luck men to the building with a promise of a job and room and board. The ones hired as handymen will not be handy for long, or leggy or any of the other body parts.
That one neat trick this delicatessen uses to stay in business is cannibalism. The building has just used up the last of its old handyman but yet a new hire has shown up on the doorstep of Clapet the butcher. Louison is not like the ones that came before him, Clapet says that he is too small and thin to properly do the job. But Louison convinces him that he is strong despite his size. Clapet imagines that a piglet will do in place of a hog.
Louison settles in and soon shows himself to be different than those that came before him. He is light-hearted and kind, not weighted down and sad. Soon Julie finds herself falling for him, drawn to the color that shines in him in this brown and grey existence. He is a former clown and he sees the world through rose colored glasses.
Love and lust still exist in this post apocalyptic landscape, it is just another form of hunger that drives each person who resides in this domicile of doom. As Julie and Louison’s love flowers there are those who want to crush that bloom. The mailman wants to have Julie as his own, his jealousy may bring the whole building down around them.
Julie hates her father who has a basement full of grain that could feed everyone in the building. But to the butcher, the grain is just there to be collected, the more he has the bigger he feels. The taking of life is not necessary to their survival but he might just enjoy the killing.
One thing I really enjoyed about this film was the amazing cinematography, the use of muted colors and post war landscapes present this bleakness in a beautiful way. The cinematographer was Darius Khondji and Matthew Skala did a deep dive on him here.
Delicatessen stars Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Karin Viard, Ticky Holgado, Anne-Marie Pisani, and Edith Ker. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.
Delicatessen is available for free with ads on Plex and Tubi; with subscription on Lionsgate+ ( .99¢ trial available on Prime); $3.99 in the usual places.
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The animated short is Dinner from Birdbox Studio.
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BONUS TRIVIA:
Jean-Pierre Jeunet got the idea for a cannibal butcher when living in an apartment above a butcher's shop. Each morning at 7am he would hear the metallic clash of knives and a voice shout, "Chop chop!" His girlfriend said he was carving up the neighbors, and it would be their turn next week.
BONUS TRIVIA:
Both Marc Caro's and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's feature film directorial debut. However, Delicatessen (1991) was actually planned after The City of Lost Children (1995) was refused, because studio executives presumed the latter film would be too expensive for the then-unknown directors to assume. Consequently, this film's budget was cut very tight with a very restricted set. Many friends and family of both directors appearing in the cast, and most props consisted of old scavenged stuff in order to cut costs.