Delicatessen (1992)
Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 41
Fresh: 36 | Rotten: 5
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet deftly combines horror, sci-fi, and humor in Delicatessen, a morbid comedy set in a visually ravishing futuristic dystopia.
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 3
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet deftly combines horror, sci-fi, and humor in Delicatessen, a morbid comedy set in a visually ravishing futuristic dystopia.
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Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 45,610
My Rating
Movie Info
A post-apocalyptic future becomes the setting for pitch black humor in this visually intricate French comedy. The action takes place within a single apartment complex, which is owned by the same man that operates the downstairs butcher shop. It's a particularly popular place to live, thanks to the butcher's uncanny ability to find excellent cuts of meat despite the horrible living conditions outside. The newest building superintendent, a former circus clown, thinks he has found an ideal living
R,
Drama, Art House & International, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy
Oct 6, 1991 Wide
May 2, 2006
Lionsgate
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Pascal Benezech
Tried to Escape -
Dominique Pinon
Louison -
Marie-Laure Dougnac
Julie Clapet -
Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Clapet -
Karin Viard
Miss Plusse -
Ticky Holgado
Mr. Tapioca -
Anne Marie Pisani
Madame Tapioca -
Rufus
Robert Kube -
Jean-François Perrier
Georges Interligator -
Dominique Zardi
Taxi Driver -
Chick Ortega
Postman -
Eric Averlant
Tourneur -
Robert Baud
Voltange -
Jean-Luc Caron
Janvier -
Dominique Defever
Trappe -
Bernard Flavien
Breland -
Raymond Forestier
Milan -
Boban Janevsi
Remi -
Edith Ker
Grandmother -
Silvie Laguna
Aurore Interligator -
Maurice Lamy
Pank -
Jacque Mathou
Roger Kube -
Patrick Paroux
Puk -
Mickael Todde
Lucien -
Howard Vernon
Frog Man -
Marc Caro
Fox -
Dominique Bettenfeld
Paumeau -
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All Critics (41) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (5) | DVD (19)
With their detached, sardonic and decidedly sick slant, Jeunet and Caro have served up a burnt-to-a-crisp feast.
Top CriticThere are no characters to care about or remember afterward -- just a lot of flashy technique involving decor, some glib allegorical flourishes, and the obligatory studied film-school weirdness.
A zany little film that's a startling and clever debut for co-helmers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.
Increasingly inventive as it progresses, Jeunet and Caro's fast, funny feature debut entertains from sinister start to frantic finish.
Its last half-hour is devoted chiefly to letting the characters wreck the sets, and quite literally becomes a washout when the bathtub overflows.
A laboriously self-conscious attempt at being avant-garde.
Sweet, sinister and endearingly scruffy.
Like a light-hearted Brazil it conjures up imagery of such impact, and such resonant subject matter that it will (...) affect audiences for generations to come.
Serves up a stew that seems to be made of a little of everything from one hundred years of screen comedy, seasoned with Grand Guignol. [Blu-ray]
[A] black-hearted black comedy, directed as if it were a living cartoon.
Dark comedy-fantasy about cannibalism isn't for kids.
Part macabre horror, part romantic drama, part childlike fable, this ingeniously original French film defies categorization, but is successful on all of these levels, which may explain why it has become an international cult classic.
With Delicatessen, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro shoot for a Terry Gilliam-esque grotesque beauty and only hit grime.
Delicatessen uses its aggressive stylization and capricious visual contraptions as a form of imprisonment.
A title certainly worthy of its cult status.
If not an instant classic when first released, it is now, fifteen years later
Delicatessen tends to get a bit too slapstick and harebrained...especially toward the end. I preferred the more subtle black humor of the movie's surreal first half.
..takes the gruesome, grisly business of murder and cannibalism and makes of it something quite poetic and quite funny.
Audience Reviews for Delicatessen
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Latest News on Delicatessen
May 27, 2010:
Jean-Pierre Jeunet Talks MicmacsSeems like an age since French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has been on screens: his last film, the...
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Super Reviewer Alice Shen contends that Jean-Pierre Jeunet had one good idea, Amelie. I disagree only because I love A Very Long Engagement and liked Micmacs, but her view that his work descends into a convoluted mess when he is unable to seamlessly entwine his characters and plotlines is well-taken in the case of Delicatessen. The underground army that plays a seminal role in the film's conclusion isn't introduced until the second act, and even then, I thought they were just passing through, on their way to another movie. The quirky "sex symphony" and the quirkier frog man weren't interesting or amusing; they were just Jeunet trying too hard. I also think that Dominque Pinon, winner of the Most Interesting-Looking Face award, is more suitable to supporting roles, where he can provide the perfect balance to the film's straight man, as he does in A Very Long Engagement.
Overall, this is not Jeunet's best work, but it's better than most films about cannibalism.