Delicatessen

    Delicatessen
    1991

    Synopsis

    In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes.

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    Cast

    • Dominique PinonLouison
    • Marie-Laure DougnacJulie Clapet
    • Jean-Claude DreyfusClapet
    • Karin ViardMademoiselle Plusse
    • Ticky HolgadoMarcel Tapioca
    • Pascal BenezechTried to Escape
    • Edith KerGrandmother
    • RufusRobert Kube
    • Jacques MathouRoger Kube
    • Chick OrtegaPostman

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Salon

      I didn't need to understand every word to see what a beautiful film this was - each camera shot a carefully composed masterpiece that immerses the viewer in a realm of luxuriant imagination.
    • 100

      TV Guide Magazine

      Delicatessen is an ingeniously funny film with a surprisingly sweet romance at its center.
    • 90

      The Hollywood Reporter

      The slapstick is classic-level stuff, the kind of domino-effect precision that is lost in most of today's clumsy farces.
    • 90

      Variety

      Beautifully textured, cleverly scripted and eerily shot (often with a wideangle lens making characters look even weirder), Delicatessan is a zany little film that's a startling and clever debut for co-helmers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.
    • 89

      Austin Chronicle

      Set in some sort of post-apocalyptic Parisian deli o' the damned, this lunatic's take on the future of man is so delightfully warped that it's impossible to shake it out of your head and go get a decent night's sleep.
    • 88

      Boston Globe

      What keeps the film going, and helps it keep its comic tone, is the constant threat of cataclysm - and the deadpan Buster Keaton charm of the ever-responsive Pinon as he combats the giant Rube Goldberg meat-grinder that the house, in effect, is. [17 Apr 1992]
    • 80

      Empire

      This is still a delightfully original picture, poised perfectly between farce and horror.
    • 70

      The New York Times

      Among the things that deserve mention in this lightweight but sometimes subversively stylish farce are its ingenious credit sequence, its lively editing by Herve Schneid, its use of code names like Artichoke Heart and Cordon Bleu in the guerrilla war that rages underground and its reference to a couple of odd inventions.

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