Caro and Jeunet’s Delicatessen (1991)

This is another of those films I have been waiting to see, for a long long time. This one, if anything, was even more fun than I expected. It is a dark comedy, done with great artistry. For me, that is its major appeal. It is fresh, original, and meant for entertainment. If one gets to the point where one believes that it is a significant statement about life, or an allegory for society, (French) I believe you would be reading more into it than the film makers intended. .

There is no deeply convoluted story line, once you figure out what is really going on, although I have a few questions about plot developments that didn’t make sense, entirely. The absolute absurdity and surrealistic quality of the film, though, more than compensates for my confusion, probably based on the fact that my French, unused for so long, is a little rusty. More than ever, I regret the fact that I couldn’t find a DVD copy. Amazon.com assured me that a DVD version has not been released. I know Arthaus ® has released a version, but I have not been able to find one. A commentary from the director would have been an asset.


FILM ELEMENTS


DIRECTION

The directors of record, are Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Jeunet is the director of record for my one of my favorite romantic comedies, Amelie. The visual style of this film, 10 years before that is unmistakable as the work of the same man. The opening credits alone would be enough to sell me on this film. This is the first collaboration of the directing team on a feature length film. Caro was the artist and designer, Jeunet “handled the actors”. Both are important for this film.

Jeunet has a reputation for finding “unusual faces” and he certainly found some fascinating faces for this film. No one in this film is ugly, but they are all coalesced characters, in that each defines by exaggeration, (and filming techniques) their personalities . This is a quality of direction and performance that transcends the language barrier, making this film a treat for anyone who watches it.

There is actually very little dialog to assimilate. More is done with images and small glimpses into the everyday life of the characters, than any meaningful dialog. It is sparse, put in, we suspect, only to clarify the action. The movie also incorporates music, rhythm, sounds, squeaks and grunts to produce some fascinating and wonderful scenes that incorporate all aspects of film making marvelously. For example, one musical number beings with squeaking bed springs, a guy painting the ceiling, then goes to a cellist playing scales, then to a woman beating a rug, then to a man blowing up a bicycle tire, and finally guys manufacturing noisemakers-and as the activities on the bedsprings accelerate, so does the accompaniment.

THE STORY

The story is definitely absurd, but has an edge of serious threat to it to keep it from being a chaotic mess of gag to gag events .

Writing credits go to Gilles Adrian, and the directors Marc Caro, and Jean -Pierre Jeunet. It is skewed and surreal and takes place in a n alternative reality. Called post apocalyptic by some, I don’t see it that way as a much as a world very like our own, that took a turn somewhere to create a different reality. The setting is a building, and nearly the entire film takes place within that building. The scenario that is shown from the start, is a building standing in the midst of ruins, other buildings partially destroyed. They have television., which most of the people in the building watch constantly. There is an underground movement (the troglodistes) which implies rebellion. In all things, it should be noted that the butcher and his delicatessen and apartment represent the current world order, the stark reality of survival.

In some ways, this movie exemplifies the conflict of art with demands of reality. The butcher’s daughter and Louisson, the young couple, represent the ephemeral and ideal world of the artist, the butcher and his cannibalistic tenants, the real world where people need to do bad things in order to survive. That the characters are each at a different level of open acceptance of their situation may be significant. It will give you something to think about.

I think this movie is enough of an art work that you should feel free to interpret it in your own way. The story is self contained, not requiring any extraordinary extrapolation into reality, and that is enough for me.

CINEMATOGRAPHY/SET DESIGN

This is a wonderfully photographed film with amazing surrealistic elements that are a visual treat, from start to finish. At times you descend into a world of Escher like mechanical mazes, through the pipe system, lit from the end of the maze, other times, the distortions of the lens up close will make everything appear off kilter. Other scenes are shot in a more conventional manner. The fun is that they are all mixed together, and you can never be sure what is coming next.

The set design is marvelous in every way, from the differences in the living quarters of the residents of the building, to the built in “pipes” which allow eavesdropping and mixing of sounds . The costuming and color pallette is appropriate for the characters. The pure innocence of the butcher’s daughter us dressed in blue. The hero is dressed in bright orange yellow or green, the butcher in darker colors. His mistress is always provocative, always in red.
The troglodistes are dressed in shiny black vinyl, or something like it, adding to the fun (and also assuring that we can identify them later)

MUSIC

This marvelous score, by Carlos D’Allesio is a combination of carnival like music (a traditional French accordion sound) with quiet thematic elements for romantic love, raucous music for carnal passion, and many variations of sounds produced by the building and the normal sounds of the inhabitants. It helped to create total sensory experience, and you can really only appreciate this when you experience this movie. The romantic theme was nicely isolated from the rest of the sounds.

EDITING/PACING

Up until the last half an hour or so, this film is very well edited, and carefully defines all the people in the building . Toward the end, chaos reigns. This may have been intentional, but I have to admit that it lost something here. A complicated rescue is attempted at the same time that the Butcher is quite anxious to get hold of Louison, resulting in events that only get more chaotic from this point on, as all the residents join in the fray. It will be difficult to follow, or at least it was for me. But if you relax and let each absurd event spur your imagination you can just experience it and enjoy it without having to understand why.



THE PLOT

The story occurs in a post apocalyptic world where food is scarce. The residents in a building survive by an agreement with the landlord, the butcher, who provides meat for them . They have a system, which invokes hiring a handicap, keeping him for a few weeks, after which he disappears, and they are provided with meat for their table. Instead of running a blow by blow of the plot, which is fairly intricate, I’ll take it character by character.




CHARACTERS- CAST-PERFORMANCES

Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Clapet. This is the first character we meet, sharpening his knives and hacksaw. A large man, powerfully built. His very demeanor is menacing. The sound of the sharpening is amplified through a connecting pipe to an upstairs apartment, where another man is listening to those metal rasping sounds, an expression of horror and fear on his face.

(Performance) This is a very darkly funny character, who is humanized at moments by his wanting to protect his daughter, and dehumanized the next by slapping her when she defies him. All he does he does to survive, although it becomes clear from the maniacal look on his face, that he enjoys killing. He is bestial and carnal with his mistress, but also admits that he sometimes has doubts. But the next moment, thinking he would lose his daughter to the circus performer, he reacts part as overprotective father, and part as the butcher, until the roles become indistinguishable.

Paschal Benezech as ‘Tried to escape’- This man is at the other end of the pipe, we assume he fears something from the man who is sharpening. We watch, incredulously as he dresses as a tape covered trash heap, and jumps into a trash can, thinking to escape. The only thing we see is a slightly comic face, with large eyes opened wide in terror, as the trash can lid opens, the butcher looming large above him.

(Performance) this is the only scene for this character, but it is enough to set the tone for the entire movie.

Marie-Laure Dougnac as Julie Clapet .She is the opposite of her father, being delicate, petite and generally in denial of the world most of the time. It is not an accident that she wears glasses-which protects her from world by keeping others away, but also allows her to survive in denial.
Her world, however begins to change when she meets the young circus performer and they begin fall in love.

(Performance) This is an excellent performance, with some real character development. The girl goes from protected to protector in the course of this film, and the removal of her glasses is a signal event for her character changes. Well done. The actress is not really beautiful in any traditional sense, but she is ethereal in her own way.


Dominique Pinon as Louison-This is the young man who will enter this world, not knowing what is planned for him,. He maintains a sort of naive but interesting aloofness from the proceedings in the house, only working as a handyman because, as a clown in a circus, he needed to work up a new act. The old act folded when his partner (who we later learn was a chimp) was killed and eaten. He goes about fixing things, and being sometimes a clown, until he meets the landlord’s daughter.

(Performance) This guy is unquestionably the star of this film and well worth watching if only for him. He is absolutely wonderful, from the physical gags in the clown suits, to the choreographed “dancing” he does, mostly with the landlord’s mistress, first bouncing on the bed (sitting up clothed) and later recreating part of an old act, in full clown regalia. His face has many expressions, and they are all used to good effect in this film. Outstanding performance

Karin Viard as Mademoiselle Pluss-this is the landlord’s provocative mistress. Of all the characters this one is the realist, who lives in a world where all things are possible. She submits to the lust of the landlord, and is of course rewarded by being fed. But she is also attracted to the entertainment world, and the romantic elements of Julie and Louisson’s love, so she becomes a very sympathetic character.

(Performance) Great performance, this character remains seductive and accessible throughout the film, although never becomes vampy or stereotyped. Her act of redemption at the end will deliver her from particiapting further. A very pretty woman, and fun to watch.

Ticky Hidalgo as Marcel Tapioca-The father of a family, with two children, a big boned wife and his mother in law. Through this character, we are given most of the dialog that support our guess that not only is the butcher a butcher, but the tenant’s have an “agreement”. He is a hustler in this movie, and brings back interesting objects from the black market. My favorite is the “bulls*t” detector.

(Performance) This character is a stereotype, but a fun one.

Anne-Marie Pisani as Madame Tapioca-the wife of the above character, she is a realist, in much the same was as the mistress, although it is obvious that she is clearly on the side of survival. In fact, when that survival is threatened, she becomes hysterical, maniacally homicidal.

(Performance) This is a fun character, who responds consistent to her character. t. When grannie bites the bullet, she cries, but accepts the meat package anyway.

Boban Janevski and Mikael Todde as Young Rascals. These two characters, children, I don’t believe are the ones that are attached to the Tapioca family. They are the eyes of the director I think, and our eyes , as they watch events happen, although they sometimes also intervene.
They are pranksters at times adding to the fin, and other times, they do something to help the good guys. I really liked the two characters, who are mostly without dialog, as they appear on the steps, or watching through a window, or playing in the mess created by the other characters. My favorite scene, accompanied by a lovely choreographed set of movements , is their first, as they sit on the stairs, and the new handyman comes out in clown shoes and blows marvelous soap bubbles for them.

Edith Ker as grandmother-This lady sits knitting, and almost from the start, you know her days are numbered. (She is, as the butcher tells her son in law, over the age limit). She has one hilarious scene, where the butcher is hovering over her, making obscene faces, trying to get her to scream. She looks at him impassively, but DOES scream, when she spots a spider over his head.

Jacques Mathou as Roger-one of two single gentlemen sharing a flat. They may be brothers, I was never sure. He and his brother work assembling noisemakers, which sound exactly like sheep. These two of course know exactly what is going on, but this fellow is jealous of the other, and his romantic love for a married neighbor (which is never consummated, only implied) . He also emerges on the dark side of the scenario at the end.

(Performance) Excellent, being remarkably complete in the short time he has on screen.

Rufus as Robert Kube-This is the other fellow in that apartment, who is smitten with his neighbor’s wife, Aurore, and tortured that she is suicidal, with frequent unsuccessful attempts. He is wanting to get closer to her, and tries to, but she has voices that tell her things. His life is further complicated when he accidentally loses a limb . And no, I won’t tell you how.

(Performance ) also excellent, and touching. He would later play Amelie’s father in Jeunet’s film.

Howard Vernon as Frog Man-This is an extremely odd duck, who we meet as the young rascals try to cadge into his food supply with a fishnet from the window. He has turned his apartment into a living envirenment with snails, frogs and other delicacies, which he eats when he wants. Apparently outside the food chain in the rest of the apartment, he is nevertheless an odd and fascinating, if repulsive character.

(Performance) This actor had been in 168 movies, in his native France, with a preponderance of roles in what appear to be B or C grade horror movies. A stock character actor, he must have been instantly recognizable to French audiences, much as say Boris Karloff would have been to American audiences. He passed away in 1996. I am not sure what purpose this character served in this film, but he was very entertaining.`

Chick Ortega as Postman-This character is the one that posts the ads for the handymen that serve as meat for the apartment building, and has a rival (carnal) interest ion the butcher’s daughter. He is clearly on the evil side, and is willing to fight the “outlaws” the troglodistes, when they threaten his security.

Performance-Probably my least favorite of the entire movie. The character is unattractive from his personality, not physically.

Silvie Laguna as Aurore Interligator-this is the crazy married woman that Robert adores. She believes that voices are urging her to kill herself. She is elegantly dressed although somewhat severe, and sometimes seems quite doddering, and is always a little off. She sets up elaborate scenes to effect her suicide, and invariably fails. She is outside the scheme of providing meat for the butcher, because her husband “pays cash”. It is well enough, since she has other things on her mind.

(Performance)excellent, great comic timing and wonderful screen presence. Interesting but not bizarre features, she is elegant and goofy at the same time.

Jean Francois Perrier as Interligator - this is the husband, always dressed in a silk smoking jacket, apparently independently wealthy. He does nothing but watch television, and seems unaware of his wife’s struggles with madness. On a few occasions, he merely looks on her indulgently shaking his head.

(Performance) short but interesting performance- Of a guy who lives completety in his own world. The television is more real to him than the apartment.

THE TROGLODISTES-include the director Marc Caro and Maurice Lamy This whole group of people are interesting and funny, apparently underground vegetarians. They are called outlaws by some. They function in a slipsticky Keystone cop sort of way.
They are “encouraged” by Julie to rescue Louisson from her father, by the stores of corn and vegetables the butcher keeps in the basement. These guys are pretty much all slap, with a little stick.
Caro and Lamy are hilarious as the “scouts”, working out an elaborate self congratulation ritual-which they perform more than once.

FINAL RECOMMENDATION

By all means experience this film! Subtitled films may be hard to watch by some, but this movie could probably be enjoyed even without them. The movie has special appeal for artists.