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Memorable, crazy movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

As Good As It Gets

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Only the French could have made this brilliant little film. I can pretty much guarantee you've never seen a movie quite like this one. I own over 1,400 movies and Delicatessen is my absolute favorite... and it's even better the second or third time around. Yes, it's a very dark movie but it's also romantic, funny, and thought provoking. The best and worst of human nature are highlighted along the way. Several of the scenes can best be described as pure magic! The cinematography throughout is excellent and even the opening credits are brilliant. If you're a fan of wonderful, quirky little movies Delicatessen is not to be missed. Hint: Pay extra attention to what's on the televisions in the background.

It is rare that I find a movie just too weird, but it seemed that my streak has been bested by "Delicatessen". It was just weird on a level where it stopped being fun and entertaining. And this 1991 movie was just really far out there.What peeked my interest about this movie was the synopsis on the back of the DVD cover. Yeah, it did come off as interesting. And I don't mind a movie being in a non-English language. But watching this movie, it quickly became clear that this was not in my range of preference.Set in an apocalyptic time, "Delicatessen" is filmed and constantly lit by a dark orange-like hue, which was a bit odd, but worked out well enough, I suppose.Now, what "Delicatessen" had working in its favor was the performances put on by the cast, and they made it bearable to sit through the train wreck of a storyline."Delicatessen" is somewhat of an acquired taste, which wasn't for me. This was a wide swing and a miss by directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

On one hand, this film has a lot of originality, especially the way it narrates the story and the interconnection of events; however, it also contains a lot of clichés that you see coming minutes before it actually comes. Nevertheless; if you have spare time, there is no reason to miss this.I rate a film 8/10 when it's a good film of a particular generation but does not establish itself as a timeless classic. This means people will think of it when they try to come up with names of films in this genre or theme, and it's enjoyable to re-watch from time to time regardless of personal preference. Think of Love Actually, Harry Potter and the like. To reach 9/10, it must push the standard to the next level either by displaying a sheer perfection or reinventing the genre. Lord of The Rings is a good example for 9/10 as it is a sensibly 'perfect' film that pushes the limit of production, special effect etc.

Delicatessen is a strange little treat from the French director Jean- Pierre Jeunet, the director of other great modern French films like Amélie. But instead of the melancholy of Amelie, Delicatessen instead focuses on very dark humour, being based around a cannibalistic butcher who lures in victims to his apartment block so he can kill them and sell them as meat to his cannibalistic tenants. He does this in a post apocalyptic world where food appears to be scarce and people have become more willing to show their barbaric nature in order to survive.And this is where the films focus lies. For it is less interested in the post apocalyptic world, but instead focuses on the characters and the various tenants who live in the building and their dark humour . A majority of the characters will have their own distinct personalities that make them quite memorable. There's one tenant who keeps quiet throughout the film, keeping an inventory of frogs and snails to represent the side of fine French cuisine in contrast to the more barbaric man eating side of the film. Then there's the girl who constantly keeps trying to commit suicide and failing in the most darkly comedic ways. It's with characters like these where the film does gain its personality and it's many awkward chuckles that are somewhere between comedy and tragedy.The film also succeeds at creating both likable protagonists and despicable antagonists. Louison (the lead protagonist) is an extremely charismatic young boy who is both very kind to all the tenants in the building and very skilled being a clown and displaying a nice introductory scene using bubbles to entertain th kids of the apartments. Then there's the lead girl, Julie, who is very brave working to stop Louison from being butchered. Similarly, Louison often protects her making their relationship extremely dependant on one another.Then the antagonist Clapet is also very memorable. The film makes it clear that he is a despicable man within the first five minutes on screen as he commits brutal murder, but feels no remorse about doing it, instead appearing to even enjoy it. At times he's slightly overplayed, but this assists in making sure he stands out as the most insane, amongst an already insane cast of characters.The style the film is shot is also very interesting as for the most part the entire story is confined to the apartment building. Through this it helps to create both a claustrophobic feeling and makes the characters feel even more detached from the rest of the world keeping the story very self contained. Also the cinematography uses a fairly dark tone, assisting the film to get a distinct look and help it stand apart from other apocalyptic futures.However, whilst everything that was in the film remained effective, throughout the film I couldn't help but feel there was lost potential. For example, whilst what I saw of the apocalyptic world was interesting, I didn't feel like we saw enough of it. Presumably what they were going for was to create some mystery as to the world, with there being a great deal of uncertainty as to when the film was even set with the likes of black and white TV's being used. But I feel the film would have been stronger if they had expanded on certain elements of the world like creating some bizarre shows on television or hints at why there is such a food shortage.It also feels like the film would have benefited from a longer run time. It took a lot of nice scenes to slow down and build up the relationship between the two leads showing them playing instruments together to create a more natural relationship. But this carries with it the problem that the plot ends up feeling more rushed with less time to make the different characters arcs complete. For example, tenants such as the Landlords mistress feel like good characters but don't get enough time for us to learn enough about them.Though the major missed opportunity that I see in the film is we don't really see any of the characters eating any of the human meat, despite the entire film centred around cannibalism. We see it being given to them and there reactions to getting it, but it does feel like a missed opportunity by not showing them actually eat it. It's an opportunity to get a good thrill, but it never seems like the director used it despite the several opportunities he could have.But in spite of this it remains a good film with a distinct style. It's certainty worth the watch because it is something different. With its nice shooting style and interesting characters it delivers some entertaining humour and dark visuals.