Set in a post apocalyptic world where society wallows in depressing reds and greys while lamenting a lack of opportunity. Food is scare. Meat is a true rarity, and as such highly sought after.
Into one of the rare buildings that seem to have an endless – yet expensive – supply of fresh meat, moves a former children’s entertainer *think; clown*, into a community of zany tenants, with the creepy butcher with the unsettling eyebrows watching ominously on the lower level, and the principled (but still wacky) freedom fighters lurking in the tunnels and pipes underneath.
Clown-boy catches the eye of the pretty but shy tuba-lady on another floor, and a tentative courtship is commenced.
Yep it’s that kind of movie. But in French! Which makes it exotic. And ever so Laudable.
I recall being enchanted by Delicatessen in my one viewing as a teenager, realising I didn’t understand what I just watched, but somehow also knowing that it was an incredible work of art.
Maybe a quarter century of drudgery and real life has dulled my sense of magic, but now I see nothing more than an inventive oddity. Sure it is easy to acknowledge the inventive lighting, amazing production and creative sets, but now it seems just a bit of ‘kook for kookiness’ sake’.
I blame Napoleon Dynamite and co for raising my ‘quirk-awareness flag’ and crap like Little Miss Sunshine for burning it.
That said, Delicatessen perhaps wrote the guidebook – oui in French – for quirky. But at least there’s more to it than that.
Final Rating – 6.5 / 10. Like real delicatessens this has something for everybody, yet still many people can live their whole lives without caring if it exists.
