Delicatessen - Herkuttelijoiden yö

A masters course in bizarreness. It’s hard to say what Delicatessen is about, but it’s set in such a weird world that it doesn’t matter. There were moments when I felt that the film’s efforts to look so fundamentally different and original are so obvious that they actually harm it. In any case, the visuals are beautiful, the direction is brimming with interesting ideas and the humour can be so goofy that it’s impossible not to laugh. Interesting experience. (04.05.2009)

A bizarrely served movie delicacy with a hint of decadence. And it’s all presented in indescribably wonderful sepia visuals. Although it is just an experiment with no story, the atmosphere of the old decrepit tenement block and its rather quirky tenants is engrossing... In a bizarrely delicious way. (22.01.2007)

Delicatessen launched director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's career and allowed him to gain experience in Hollywood by directing the fourth Alien movie and making his masterpiece, Amelie. It is one of those playful, artistically fascinating, and adequately provocative films that are difficult to categorize and remain in one's memory for a long time. The center of the story is a house standing abandoned in a grey, gloomy landscape struck by catastrophe. In undesirable conditions, most of the residents struggle and try to find something to eat. The butcher who owns a shop on the ground floor can provide meat from time to time and has thus become the unofficial ruler. However, the means of acquiring the meat are somewhat questionable. The house is also interesting because no caretaker ever lasts long there. The tenants try to attract one with an advertisement titled Tough Times. But one day, a caretaker arrives who disrupts the appetite of the diners and turns everything in the house upside down... This intelligent, difficult-to-classify comedy was created with difficulty - a whole four years (because the project's producers did not believe in it) - based on the concept by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and co-director Marc Caro. The film is inspired by French alternative comics, abounds in elegantly served gags in the style of the darkest humor, and thanks to the directorial sophistication, it has a special atmosphere and an unmistakable personal rhythm. For example, the scene with the creaking bed is memorable, where something typical between a man and a woman takes place, or the poetic concert for a saw and a cello, in which the enamored caretaker confesses his feelings. In this film, visually enhanced titles and camera trips through a network of pipes and skylights, grotesquely resembling the distorted characters of the house's inhabitants, are a treat. The bizarre characters that appear in this film could unsettle even an experienced psychiatrist. Delicatessen is an example of a film where the plot is not important, but the emotions it evokes are, and those who can immerse themselves in its atmosphere and enjoy it will be more than satisfied. Overall impression: 90%. (04.01.2008)

There's not an inch of that building the film doesn't explore. Voices carry through empty water pipes, guerrilla sewer commandos shimmy up the risers, the sound of knives sharpening carries through the air ducts, and if somebody’s humping on an old rickety bed, their tempo simply sets the rhythm of the whole building as the sound of screeching couples carries down the chimney shaft throughout the structure. Anyone who has ever lived in an old apartment building in Paris will immediately understand where the authors got the idea. I once stayed for a week in a cheap hotel, spending most of my time trying to figure out why my room smelled like rotting garbage. After two days, I discovered gaping pipes under the bed, coming out of the floor and leading to God knows where, with the smell pouring out of them. Every morning I plugged them with toilet paper and every evening I found them leaking again and the toilet paper in the trash. Room service for the master. Anyway, it's still strongly evident in Delicatessen that Jeunet and Caro are originally animators, because all the live actors who wander around this morbid dollhouse act like cartoon characters too, they look like it, and the film mostly frames them that way. If nothing else, the film can always serve as a catalogue of positions to put the camera in. (29.07.2020)

An excellent pitch-black comedy. I’m not much of a French cinema lover, but I do have a few favorites and Delicatessen has been taking the lead for quite a while. A comedy that is black to the point of cynicism and could be used as the definition of wacky. (27.06.2016)

Jeunet and Caro have such a special darkly grotesque poetics that their films are hard to resist. It's humorous, even though you realize that the story being told to you is actually a horror. The cast, however, fits perfectly and Dominique Pinon showcases not only his clownish abilities but also his acting skills. (22.02.2016)