Delicatessen - Jeunet-Caro

This movie is a caricature of sorts – and to be honest, I can’t form my opinion on it. It has certain strangeness to it, which may be appealing and repulsive at the same time to a cinephile such as myself. A strange plot, with an even stranger assortment of characters, and set gives it a very distinct character.

The movie begins with a close up shot of a derelict building in some unknown part of France (in a post-apocalypse era), called Delicatessen. Although it is never clearly mentioned in the movie, the building and the destruction surrounding it indicates that there has been a devastating war in the recent past, which has consumed majority of people and animals, and there are only a handful remaining now. The building is owned, and managed by Clapet, and the barter system is still in place, where food (grains, pulses) are exchanged as money. Clapet posts ad in the aptly named “Hard times”, offering needy people jobs in exchange for food. This is essentially a trap set up for a reason divulged later in the movie.

In response to the ad in the paper, an ex-circus unemployed clown by the name of Louison (he just looks the part!) comes to Clapet, and is hired by him. Soon afterwards, he befriends Clapet’s daughter Julie, who, unlike her father, is kind-hearted gem of a girl. Julie and Louison fall in love and at this point, Clapet commences to put his plan into action.

Apparently, Clapet and the other building residents are cannibals, who murder people (attracted by job prospects and food) for their human flesh. Aware of the ghastly fate of Louison (lest she take some action to prevent it), and pulled by her love for him, she decides to save him from her father’s evil clutches. For the same, she contacts the sewer-residing, vegetarian (and more human) Troglodytes, to carry out a rescue operation in return for best quality grains from her father’s basement. In the meanwhile, Clapet is busy devising evil schemes to hack Louison, but ends up barking up the wrong tree. Towards the end, Clapet lures Louison to the rooftop where he tries to kill him. Louison manages to escape and locks himself up along with Julie into the bathroom to keep the killers at bay. He fills up the entire bathroom with water, and manages to destroy pretty much the entire building. A furious Clapet, hurls a boomerang type of knife (called Australian by Louison) at Louison, but inadvertently kills himself rather absurdly. Troglodytes abduct Clapet’s mistress by mistake, and return to recapture their intended target facing off with the Clapet and his accomplices.

Louison and Julie live happily together in the building, enjoying a romantic rendezvous on the rooftop in the now tranquil building.

The movie is comical, yet tragic in many ways, and is therefore a cinematic paradox. One of the most hilarious and entertaining scenes is the one I call the “Harmoniously synchronized intercourse”. It goes like this – The landlord and his mistress are indulging in some noisy lovemaking, [not of the verbal kinds but] thanks to the creaky sounds of their rickety bed that are synchronized with the many others in the buildings – mechanical grunts of a bicycle pump, woman beating the dust off her carpet, a cello player’s musical notes, musical tongs resonating with an empty cylindrical object, an old woman’s knitting needles clanking against each other, pendulum of a clock – as if all the actions are happening to the beat of the springs. As they are nearing climax with more forceful thrusts, the speed of the other activities also pick up, all simultaneously attaining a sort of universal climax with every activity ending rather explosively, followed by post “mechanico-coital” silence and a shot of the swaying “Delicatessen” sign.

Another admirable yet crazy part of the movie includes the incessant attempts of a middle-aged eccentric woman who is constantly devising innovative and ingenious (but lethal) ways to kill herself. She proves unlucky in all but the last attempts. (The last one is the ultimate, where three different foolproof methods cancel each other out, only to lead to an explosion where the woman and her husband are killed by a freak accident).

If I have to cook up a genre for this movie – it would be noir-humor. With eccentric characters (much like in Amelie by the same director), the movie appears sinister, sad and funny in parts – thanks to the out-of-the-box thinking by its creators. Even the opening sequence with the names of the team-members appearing in objects denoting their profession (Director’s name on a destroyed camera, Musician’s name on a broken disc, etc) is one of the most creative ideas I’ve come across by a director.

You simply can’t ignore this movie – every scene is a product of exemplary imagination of two geniuses (Jeunet and Caro). Dominique Pinon (as Louison) and Jean-Claude Dreyfus (as Clapet) are perfect fit for their respective roles, bringing a certain authenticity to their characters. The controversial and disturbing subject of cannibalism has been treated in a very subtle manner, and even though relatively more vanilla movies have more gore in them, this one manages to stay clear of any unpalatable (no pun intended!) visuals. If you were thinking “scrumptious treats” prior to watching it (movie title is far from what it suggests), you are in for a surprise (in fact it may kill your appetite for quite sometime). Oh and did I mention that they use the pipes and garbage chutes to communicate and pass things around? Go figure!

Trailer