Delicatessen

Films of a ‘quirky’ and ‘zany’ nature have never really sat well with me. More often than not, the same predictable superlatives and adjectives are used to describe them time and time again; fantastical, dream-like, original, weird and wonderful. All of which I tend to wholly disagree with. Usually, these kinds of film are completely interchangeable, taking place in a slightly surreal world and following the lives of a small group of oddball characters. Take for instance, Paul King’s 2009 film ‘The Bunny and The Bull’, whose protagonist, an obsessive compulsive agoraphobic, goes on a surreal, other-worldly journey, meeting a bunch of equally ‘interesting’ (boring) and ‘crazy’ (annoying) characters along the way. Admittedly, a film of great style, yet, substantially lacks in substance. Entertaining for around thirty minutes, tiresome and repetitive for the remaining seventy. Visually the film is a great success, developing a homemade style that will be familiar to those who also watch King’s ‘The Mighty Boosh’. The problem here is that far too much emphasis is placed on the visuals, whilst the characters and plot are essentially ignored and, therefore rendered irrelevant.

2009 again played host to another film that suffered with a similar problem. ‘Micmacs’ from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whose 1991 debut ‘Delicatessen’ we will come to shortly, is also very much a case of style over substance. Its collection of off-the-wall misfits living together in a junkyard acts only as a device to string a bunch of bizarre, circus-like sequences together. Although skilfully and beautifully shot, I once again found myself losing interest around the thirty minute mark, as the plot concerning a man seeking revenge on a bullet manufacturing company was so stiflingly dull I began to fear a boredom induced panic attack.

So, we arrive at Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s ‘Delicatessen’, which, for me, made for frustrating rather than disappointing viewing. The story takes place in a post war/apocalyptic, unspecified region in France, in which food is scarce and a cannibalistic butcher/apartment landlord keeps his tenants sustained on human meat. When a former circus performer named Pinon arrives looking for work, he is quickly employed as a handyman, unaware that he will soon be providing his employer with his next ration of meat. With a rich blend of horror, comedy and art-house surrealism, ‘Delicatessen’ should have left me in awe, hailing it as a modern classic, yet still I felt a nagging sense of frustration. On one hand, it is undoubtedly a far more impressive piece than either of the aforementioned films. Its deftly balanced combination of visual quirkiness and moments of nightmarish, black comedy work to wonderful effect.

However, it is still guilty of prioritising style over substance, with long periods in which nothing actually happens. Yes, there may be scenes and sequences of inventive cinematography and visual artistry, but still nothing is happening. This simply should not be possible for a film with such an inventive and unusual premise. Take for example the moments that depict a man living alone in a dark, flooded flat, infested with frogs and snails. There really is no purpose for these scenes to exist other than for the directors to engage in an act of self-indulgent smuggary and gratification at their own ability. All very nice, but ultimately very boring.

The trouble here really lies in where the directors invest the bulk of their efforts. In trying so hard to place the audience in the world of ‘Delicatessen’ primarily via its aesthetic, the element of engagement through characterisation and plot development are generally overlooked. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Delicatessen’ comes pretty close to striking the right balance, just not quite close enough. When compared to films of such insane brilliance as Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’ or Michel Gondry’s ‘The Science of Sleep’, both master classes in how to achieve emotionally engaging pieces of surrealist, quirky cinema, ‘Delicatessen’ just falls short. With each of the above mentioned films, the aesthetics and surroundings are created to compliment and assist the plot in its development, as opposed to the other way around. In the end, what should have been at the very least a memorable film, ‘Delicatessen’, unfortunately, I found fairly forgettable.