Format: DVD
Žanr: Fantazija
Poreklo: Strani

Delicatessen

Delicatessen is a 1991 French film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard. It is set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the building and their desperate bids to survive. Among these characters is the newly arrived Louison, who arrives to replace a tenant whose reason for departure is initially unclear. The butcher, Clapet, is the leader of the group who strives to keep control and balance in the apartment building.

It is largely a character-based film, with much of the interest being gained from each tenant`s own particular idiosyncrasies and their relationships to each other.

Released in North America with the supertitle Terry Gilliam presents, the film—like its successor The City of Lost Children (1995)—is a deliberate homage to Gilliam.

Plot

In a dilapidated apartment building in post-apocalyptic France, food is in short supply and grain is used as currency. In the ground floor is a butcher`s shop, run by the landlord, Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), who posts job opportunities in the Hard Times paper as means to lure victims to the building, whom he murders and butchers as a cheap source of meat to sell to his tenants.

Following the `departure` of the last worker, unemployed circus clown Louison (Dominique Pinon) applies for the vacant position. During his routine maintenance, he befriends Clapet`s daughter, Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac), a relationship which slowly blossoms into romance. Louison proves to be a superb worker with a spectacular trick knife and the butcher is reluctant to off him too quickly. During this time several of the tenants fall under Louison`s boyish charms, worrying others who are more anxious for their own safety should they require meat. Aware of her father`s motives, Julie descends into the sewers to make contact with the feared Troglodistes, a vegetarian sub-group of French rebels, whom she convinces to help rescue Louison.

During the apparent butchering of an old woman the Troglodistes attack but are repelled and Clapet, with the unsympathetic tenants, storm Louison`s room in an attempt to murder him. Louison and Julie resist by flooding themselves, floor to ceiling, in an upper floor bathroom until Clapet opens the door releasing the flood and washing the attackers away. Clapet returns with Louison`s knife and inadvertently kills himself. Louison and Julie play music together on the roof of the now peaceful apartment building.

Directed by Marc Caro
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Produced by Claudie Ossard
Written by Gilles Adrien
Marc Caro
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring Dominique Pinon
Marie-Laure Dougnac
Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Karin Viard
Music by Carlos d`Alessio
Cinematography Darius Khondji
Edited by Hervé Schneid
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release dates France:
17 April 1991
United States:
3 April 1992
Running time 99 minutes
Country France
Language French
Subtitles: Greek