Delicatessen
Director: Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Starring: Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus
1991
Very dark. Very bleak. Very gorgeous. Pretty funny. Pretty cute. All terms I would use to describe Delicatessen, an odd little duck of a film that almost taunts IMDB to categorize it. With plot keywords that include “chimpanzee,” “cannibalism,” and “Rube Goldberg device,” you know you’re in for something original.
In an unexplained post-apocalyptic world, the butcher Clapet (Dreyfus) runs his delicatessen from the ground floor of the apartment building he owns. Food is so scarce it is used as money. After “dispensing” of his previous odd-jobs man in his apartment building, he puts out an ad for a “replacement.” What he gets is the former circus clown Louison (Pinon), a kind soul who entrances Clapet’s daughter Julie (Dougnac). Julie tries to save her clown, but Clapet is determined to serve up Louison.
