Delicatessen [Widescreen]

Delicatessen is a bent French comedy from surrealist filmmaking collaborators Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic age, where food is a scarce and invaluable commodity, traded for grain, sex, board and life. “Delicatessen” centres around the cycles of one boarding house, ruled economically by the local butcher (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) who uses his power in the community to blackmail tenants into providing favours, including sexual, for food. Food supplies are kept topped up by the cannibalism of departing tenants, a fact depicted graphically in the opening credits. A young clown, (Dominique Pinon) applies for a job with the butcher and falls in love with the butcher’s daughter consequently upsetting the nervous energy of the boarding house, unaware that he too is destined for the butcher’s cleaver. The film is peppered with surreal dark imagery and scenes depicting decay, neglect and desperation as well as providing dim corners of hope where tenants hope to connect. “Delicatessen” is a film remarkable for its evocative set design and hypnotic score, winning many European awards in these categories. In French with English subtitles.