User:HLPickard/Delicatessen (1991 film)

Model Article: Amélie

Notes (not drafting yet):

Graeme Hayes:

1990s, films were made that portrayed resistance during German Occupacion of France in WW2, known as Vichy France.

Themes in the film include patriarchy, relating to the patriarchal roles of German legislation. Relationship between the daughter and the butcher father, "authoritarian patriarch", forbids anyone from seeing his daughter. Other forms of control: controlling the food supply=controlling the community

Reception: Although the film is a commentary on German Occupation, there were barely any comments about it upon initial release. Critic..."blithe regard for anyone who likes to deal with one genre at a time" (direct quote to change later).

McGrath:

Absence of plant and animal life

Robert and Roger Cube make the sounds of mooing cows

Claude Tapioca-- makes a living for the family trying to sell rat callers and "bullshit detectors" on the black market

In the basement--- the tenant transformed his room into a swamp with frogs and snails.

Aurore-- "hears voices" telling her to free herself from the world.

Julie Clapet-- vegetarian, nearsighted, daughter of the butcher. Accidentally brews a somatic tea that keeps Louison asleep. Julie has a dream of Louison's death, and unwraps a newspaper in her refrigerator and sees an article about the Troglodytes.

Troglodytes -- egalitarian, vegetarian resistance group,

Julie and Louison-- Forced into a bathroom

Postman-- blows himself up trying to shoot them

Butcher: throws a boomerang knife at Louison, but ends up being hit by it instead.

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Notes:

General Plot points:

Clapet talks with Marcel Tapioca about giving up grandma.

Julie in the kitchen with Clapet

DRAFT:

Delicatessen is a 1991 French post-apocalyptic black comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Marie-Laure Dougnac. It was released in North America as "presented by Terry Gilliam."

Plot

In a dilapidated apartment building in post-apocalyptic France, food is in short supply and grain is used as currency. On the ground floor is a butcher's shop, run by the landlord, Clapet, who posts job opportunities in the Hard Times paper as means to lure victims to the building, whom he murders and butchers as a cheap source of meat to sell to his tenants.

Following the murder of the last worker, unemployed circus clown Louison applies for the vacant position. Louison proves to be a superb worker with a spectacular trick knife, and the butcher is reluctant to kill him too quickly. During Louison's routine maintenance, he acquires a package dropped by a mailman. Louison delivers the package to Clapet's daughter, Julie, who says the package contains confections and invites him to join her that evening. Louison and Julie's relationship slowly blossoms into romance, and during this time several of the tenants fall under Louison's boyish charms, worrying others who are more anxious for their own safety should they require meat.

Clapet tells apartment tenant Marcel Tapioca that his rent is late and he must give up his mother-in-law as payment. That evening, Julie begs her father to let Louison go, knowing that Clapet is killing tenants for meat. She then goes to her apartment, unwraps a newspaper in her refrigerator and sees an article about the Troglodistes, a group of vegetarian rebels who live underground. Aware of her father's motives, Julie descends into the sewers to make contact with the feared Troglodistes, whom she persuades to help rescue Louison.

After the apparent butchering of Tapioca's mother-in-law, the Troglodistes go through the sewer pipes and attempt to capture Louison, but end up mistakenly capturing tenant Mademoiselle Plusse instead. Meanwhile, as Julie and Louison watch television, Clapet ascends to the roof, shaking the television antenna to lure Louison up and fix it. Attacking Louison with a cleaver, Clapet's attempt to kill him is foiled by an unexpected electrical explosion in a downstairs apartment.

Clapet, along with some sympathetic tenants, storms Louison's room in another attempt to murder him. Louison and Julie resist by flooding themselves, floor to ceiling, in an upper floor bathroom until Clapet opens the door, releasing the flood and washing the attackers away. Mademoiselle Plusse escapes the sewers, finds Louison's boomerang knife, and gives it to Clapet. Clapet throws the knife towards Louison, but inadvertently kills himself. Louison and Julie play music together on the roof of the now peaceful apartment building.

Reception

The film was received well critically. Variety called it "a zany little film that's a startling and clever debut." Empire called it a "fair bet for cultdom, a lot more likeable than its subject matter suggests, and simply essential viewing for vegetarians". Inverse described the movie as having "striking visual aesthetic inspired by the monochrome photography of French-Hungarian photographer Brassaï, and the fantasy films of Terry Gilliam".

Not all reviews were positive, however, with The New York Times saying "its last half-hour is devoted chiefly to letting the characters wreck the sets, and quite literally becomes a washout when the bathtub overflows."

Although Delicatessen examines the resistance movement in German-occupied Europe, few film critics commented on this theme upon its initial release.

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave it an approval rating of 89% from a total of 54 reviews with an average rating of 7.76/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet deftly combines horror, sci-fi, and humor in Delicatessen, a morbid comedy set in a visually ravishing futuristic dystopia." Metacritic gave it 66 out of 100 out of a total of 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."