Delicatessen (1991)
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Delicatessen Movie Review
Delicatessen is a 1991 black comedy film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It is a pretty authentic, but decidedly unfunny, overly weird movie.
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“You think this is a safari, bitch?“
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I actually found its premise terrific as it’s very original to have a post-apocalyptic France where food, especially meat, is in short supply. Most definitely the originality is admirable and some other technical aspects too, but more on that later.
What isn’t great is its execution which is actually very weak. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is a director who favors weirdness and goofy characters in his films and here he overplayed that card way too much. The movie is frequently too weird just for the sake of being weird and the characters behave way too stupidly to make an impact.
Yes, none of the characters are even remotely likable or memorable. I would say that the acting is certainly quite strong and the casting is good, but the characters themselves are immensely forgettable.
Delicatessen works as a post-apocalyptic movie thanks in no small part to its terrific technical aspects. Yes, the film is gorgeously shot with some particularly striking shots and great camera angles. The score is also very good.
But the highlight is the world building which is simply fantastic. I loved the color palette of the film, I loved its atmosphere and I definitely felt the despair and the post-apocalyptic part of it. The sets are particularly evocative at creating those feelings and the film is fueled by immaculate attention to detail.
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So obviously Delicatessen is a detailed, visually gorgeous and very well imagined movie. But unfortunately I still ended up mostly disliking it because the storytelling is so weak and the pacing is so slow and uninvolving. And most importantly, the humor is just so weak and unappealing that the movie entirely fails as a black comedy.
Delicatessen is gorgeously shot and so well imagined with terrific sets, atmosphere and world building, but it’s a shame that the execution of its admittedly great premise is so weak with unappealing humor, forgettable characters and too much weirdness in its approach.
