Delicatessen

Delicatessen is the 1991 black comedy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and makes his other films like Amelie look about as whimsical as a documentary on abortion. This is seriously twisted stuff that you can only imagine someone writing after taking some pretty potent hallucinogens.

Dominique Pinon stars as Louison, the odd-jobs man who's hired by a butcher (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) who runs a not exactly typical delicatessen/hotel. What's unusual about this place is that most of the food sold here is the body parts of former odd-jobs men that our kind hearted butcher has killed once he's got some value out of them. Louison is next for the butcher's hook, and guests are getting impatiently hungry, except the butcher would like Louison to finish redoing the ceiling first. Louison's unaware of the butcher's intentions, but not for too long since the butcher's daughter (Marie-Laure Dougnac) falls in love with him and, after failing to convince her father to turn his intentions elsewhere, hatches a plan to have Louison kidnapped by an underground race. Just your typical Sunday morning comedy then.

This is wonderfully bizarre stuff and whilst maybe not consistently funny enough to sustain the running time, it does have some magical moments throughout. A lady's continued failed attempts at suicide and a wonderfully edited 'musical number' are the highlights. The set design is award-worthy stuff as well - in fact, and it's not often you say this, it is probably worth the rental fee alone.

What sets Delicatessen apart from other dystopic fantasies like Gilliam's Brazil, is it's whimsical sense of humour. Brazil, although it undoubtedly has ardent fans, for me just isn't particularly engaging and the emphasis in that film is on the satire. Delicatessen on the other hand has the emphasis on fun, on chance and on whimsy. It's what makes it work so well.

B

This Would Make A Great Film...

In response to a thread by a commenter over the weekend on 'Difficult Books To Adapt', I thought I might as well start with this. Why difficult, I hear you all cry? Well, for two reasons in particular. One, because the film would be focused solely on one character, Pi Patel, who is shipwrecked in a lifeboat for a large part of the narrative. And, two, his only companion in the boat is a Bengal tiger. It's a fantastic premise, but it would be very difficult to do and still look realistic if they used CGI. And I'm not sure I'd want to be one of the "stuntmen" if they didn't use CGI. The first problem is, perhaps, less of one as anyone who has seen the excellent Cast Away (A-) will testify.

Also, there are attempts afoot to adapt this into a film but they, too, seem to have been beset by difficulties. Two directors (M. Night Shyamalan and Alfonso Cuaron) have bailed, leaving Jean Pierre Jeunet (Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, Alien Resurrection) at the helm. This is a shame. As readers of this site will know, I'm a huge Shyamalan fan and I think this is just his kind of material. He's also from Pondicherry, India, where Pi Patel hails from as well, though that's a little by the by. I was fortunate to attend a director screening of the Village where Shyamalan talked with passion about making this, and I think he would have done a great job.I like Jeunet, though I disliked what he did with Alien Resurrection quite a bit, and I'd be worried about how he'd handle the ending and the cinematographic feel of the book. We'll just have to wait and see. If it ever gets made.

The ending is another thing (I won't spoil it). It was a huge disappointment to me (and, I know, to others as well) but I think more interesting things could be done with it on screen to make it more effective.

"Difficult" is certainly the word!