DVDs in Review

Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro, 1991)

Title: Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro, 1991)

Release date: September 13 2010

Certificate: 15

Format: Blu-ray

RRP: £24.99

Rating: 4/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

As the debut of the directorial duo Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro, 'Delicatessen' was an unexpected, strange and darkly beautiful assault on the senses.

Now best known for their masterpiece 'The City of Lost Children', this was a fertile beginning to their unique, highly stylised brand of filmmaking.

Almost every character seems over the top or suffers from an affliction. Even the backdrop - a post-apocalyptic world in which food is scarce - doesn't instill genuine fear as it might in real life.

Instead this feels akin to Gilliam's 'Brazil', which in itself was a satirical take on Orwell's '1984', with a touch of 'Mad Max' but instead of hunting for gasoline, it's food.

Dominique Pinon stars an ex-clown who gets a handyman job in an apartment building and then falls for the daughter of the building’s owner, who is somewhat of a Sweeney Todd character – a burly butcher who kills a few unsightly people to get his meat fix. The last handyman in the building mysteriously went missing.

All of this is very intriguing but somewhat hollow. The trouble with this (and indeed most visually arresting films) is that it's hard to really care for the characters; you're too busy getting dazzled with light, colour and tone.

Then again, that's half of the point - this is a film primarily about taste, hunger, desire, richness. The cinematography and direction reflects this. It's a breezy watch, especially with this superb Blu-ray transfer from the Studio Canal Collection but it may not fill you up with its story.