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MOVIES / ON DVD / DELICATESSEN
Delicatessen

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Delicatessen (1991)

86%
83%
89%
N/A
N/A
N/A
86 %
Reviews Counted: 37 Fresh: 32  Rotten:5 Average Rating: 7.7/10
 
Consensus: Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet deftly combines horror, sci-fi, and humor in Delicatessen, a morbid comedy set in a visually ravishing futuristic dystopia.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins

Synopsis: After years of working successfully in commercials and music videos, French directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet make a splashing feature-film debut, DELICATESSEN, a hysterical exercise in style. Scripted by comic book writer and frequent Caro and Jeunet collaborator Gilles... After years of working successfully in commercials and music videos, French directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet make a splashing feature-film debut, DELICATESSEN, a hysterical exercise in style. Scripted by comic book writer and frequent Caro and Jeunet collaborator Gilles Adrien, the story follows a sweet-natured clown, Louison (Dominique Pinon), who moves into a run down apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor and falls in love with the butcher's daughter, Julie Clapet (Marie-Laure Dougnac). When it turns out that Julie's father (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) is actually butchering human beings and selling the meat to the carnivorous tenants of the building, Julie must decide if she will remain loyal to her father's business or expose the truth in order to save Louison from being the next victim. Taking place entirely inside, underneath, and on the roof of the delicatessen, the film uses an old pipe that runs throughout the building as a channel of communication for its characters. Caro and Jeunet have a flair for visual communication and comedy that overflows in DELICATESSEN, keeping viewers engaged in the film even when the style seems to swallow the plot. In one of the most mimicked scenes of the 1990s (most notably in commercials), the directors brilliantly choreograph a bizarre event in which the separate activities of each of the hotel's tenants--a couple making love in a squeaky bed, a man painting his ceiling, a woman playing the cello--become hilariously rhythmic and synchronized. This scene spawned an entirely new cinematic language, making DELICATESSEN one of the most auspicious directorial debuts of the '90s. [More]

Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy

Starring: Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Karin Viard, Rufus

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 8, 2010

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 - French
  • Subtitles - English, Spanish

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Co-Director
  • Featurettes - 1. Fine Cooked Meats: The Making of DELICATESSEN
  • 2. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Archives
  • Trailers - 1. Original Trailer
  • 2. Teaser

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Ratings Image
N/A

Increasingly inventive as it progresses, Jeunet and Caro's fast, funny feature debut entertains from sinister start to frantic finish.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/26/06
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

visually astonishing

comment Comment
11/08/04
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
5/5

A hugely enjoyable film, Delicatessen welds comedy and magic into a bizarre, grotesque fantasy of an oddball dystopian future.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/17/01
Matt Ford
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
4/5

A fair bet for cultdom, a lot more like­able than its subject matter suggests, and simply essential viewing for vegetarians.

Full Review | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jack Yeovil
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

With their detached, sardonic and decidedly sick slant, Jeunet and Caro have served up a burnt-to-a-crisp feast.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/05/07
Duane Byrge
Hollywood Reporter
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Ratings Image
N/A

There 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.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/05/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
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N/A

A zany little film that's a startling and clever debut for co-helmers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/05/07
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
B+

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.

Full Review | comment Comment
02/27/07
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
2/4

Delicatessen uses its aggressive stylization and capricious visual contraptions as a form of imprisonment.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/21/06
Paul Schrodt
Slant Magazine
Ratings Image
7/10

..takes the gruesome, grisly business of murder and cannibalism and makes of it something quite poetic and quite funny.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/29/06
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com
Ratings Image
4/5

Sure, it's funny, it's gross, it's diabolically, unabashedly idiosyncratic, but it's also an epic ode to that most fundamental expression of human endeavor -- creativity.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/12/06
Keith Breese
Filmcritic.com
Ratings Image
5/5

A black comedy mind-bender.

comment Comment
03/07/06
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
Ratings Image
5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
07/02/05
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
Ratings Image
4/5

Strange, dark comedy that established Jeunet as a visual innovator.

comment Comment
01/13/05
Rob Thomas
Capital Times (Madison, WI)
Ratings Image
3/5

No review available.

comment Comment
12/05/04
Michael Dequina
Mr. Brown's Movies
Ratings Image
4/5

No review available.

comment Comment
06/25/04
Enrique Buchichio
Uruguay Total
Ratings Image
5/5

Sublime, edible film with exquisite art direction.

comment Comment
01/27/04
Moira Sullivan
FilmFestivals.com
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5/5

No review available.

comment Comment
11/11/03
Jeffrey Westhoff
Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)
Ratings Image
4/4

An ingeniously funny film with a surprisingly sweet romance at its center.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/30/03
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Ratings Image
3/5

Funny dark comedy with some good setpieces

comment Comment
07/18/03
Fred Topel
About.com
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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