"I had a monkey, once.”
 

The Flick

This 1991 classic won 4 Cesar Awards for Best Editing, Best First Work, Best Production and Best Writing.  Part of the StudioCanal Blu-ray collection, Delicatessen – along with many other films including The Third Man – was created to preserve the heritage of these landmark films.  Labeled as a black comedy, Delicatessen offers a healthy dose of subtle and not so subtle humor coated with a dark dystopian theme of control and murder.

In a bleak future where energy is scarce and food is extremely limited, apartment owner and butcher Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) has resorted to killing humans in order to meet the demand of the residents living there.  With resources running low again, he places an ad requesting a new handyman in order to fix the apartment up and bring in some fresh meat, so to speak.  When ex-clown Louison (Dominique Pinion) takes the offer, he has no idea what’s in store for him.

Upon meeting the Butcher’s daughter Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac), Louison quickly becomes smitten.  When it becomes apparent to the people living there that this new handyman is supposed to be their next meal ticket, their need for fresh meat escalates.  When the butcher begins devising a plan to get the new tenant into the meat grinder, Julie rushes to counter him with a plan of her own in order to save her newfound love. 

Fans of Fallout 3 will see plenty of similarities where this post-apocalyptic world meets the décor and technology of the 1950s.  The clothing styles used here borrow heavily from the era and several times throughout you’ll catch the tenants watching black and white programming on early tube televisions.  On top of that, the tenants are as oddball as they get.  There’s a lady who’s constantly creating wild contraptions in order to try and kill herself but manages to fail every time, a pair of brothers who work to create noisemakers all day, and even a guy who has transformed his apartment into a swamp so he can raising frogs and snails in order to eat them.

There’s a lot of comedy revolving around the music used throughout the film and it’s some of the best parts that the movie offers.  There’s a musical ensemble set to a sex scene on an extremely noisy bed, another where Louison attempts to fix that same bed, one where Julie and Louison play instruments together, and yet another where Louison dances a number wearing a three-legged pair of pants.  With that said, it’s all original and is some of the best that the movie offers.  Not that the rest of the movie isn’t good, it’s just nice to see more of this little-used type of comedy.

Furthermore, the violence throughout is done tastefully.  You’ll see the aftermath of violence, like the package of meat or the stub of a leg, but you’ll never witness the acts.  The build ups are there, but being done this way really adds to the humor present in this film.   On the other hand, if you think reading subtitles really sucks, then Delicatessen is not for you. Entirely spoken in French, you’ll be hard pressed to find an actor you’ll recognize but regardless, that doesn’t stop this film from being awesome. 

Audio and Video

The 16X9 1.85:1 Ratio 1080p High Def widescreen presentation that Delicatessen offers looks incredible.  The otherwise bleak and dull color palette used here makes the bright and warm colors that the tenants wear and adorn their rooms with look sharp in high-def.  Watching the standard def special features will provide an excellent comparison of how much greater this film looks on Blu-ray.  The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track won’t really work your speakers, but it’s quirky and certainly a lot of fun.  There’s a heavy amount of dialogue throughout that trumps much of the music, but it’s altogether funny and very memorable.

Special Features and Packaging

Delicatessen on Blu-ray comes as a single-disc collection in a standard recycle case with a slip cover and the following extras:

• Audio Commentary with Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
• “Fine Cooked Meats” by Diane Bertrand: The Making of Delicatessen featurette.
• “Main Course Pieces” featurette
• The Archives of Jean-Pierre Jeunet featurette.
• Teaser bits
• Trailer

The audio commentary also features subtitles so you’re forced to choose either watching the film or the commentary.  With that said, Jeunet runs a mile a minute on everything that occurs on screen and otherwise. The “Fine Cooked Meats” featurette runs about 13 minutes and shows how some scenes were produced, but it doesn’t provide any dialogue to guide it.  With that said, it doesn’t really offer anything more than extremely rough shots of some of the more exciting scenes.

The Main Course featurette runs over an hour and is filled with tons of information on how difficult it was to get this film made.  It covers everything from how difficult it was to get actors on board, to producers refusing to read the script, and even how they would set out filming it.  It also features plenty of interviews with Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro and almost every actor in the film. The Archives of Jean-Pierre Jeunet are some of the original rehearsals that the actors used back when the film was being made.  It runs about 9 minutes and features some extremely rough footage of the team shooting a few of the scenes.  It doesn't really offer anything new to special features already present, but it's interesting to see how awesome the Blu-ray version looks compared to the original cut.

Overall

Delicatessenis a unique post apocalyptic comedy that offers a ton of stuff to enjoy.  That is if you can get past the subtitles.  It may be a little dark for some viewers, but for the rest of us, this is a classic you’ll certainly want to add your collection. 
 
ComicsOnline gives Delicatessen on Blu-ray 4.5 out of 5 Meat Cleavers.

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