DELICATESSEN (1991)
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 99 Minutes 54 Seconds
Audio: French DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo, 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro
Cast: Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Howard Vernon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Karin Viard
Directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's fantastical apocalypse comedy Delicatessen (1991) is a film that looms large in by cinematic-mind. I first saw it in early 90's while living in Ithaca, NY, where I saw it at the local subterranean arthouse cinema, the Cinemapolis on the Ithaca Commons. I was not quite yet in my twenties at the time, I had just graduated, and was coming off a decade of VHS-fueled 80's horror devotion, when I started frequenting the arthouse cinema, and those frequent trips to Cinemopolis birthed my love of arthouse and foreign cinema, forever expanding and broadening my taste in cinema. My new found interest in arthouse and foreign films was fed all that year by both the aforementioned Cinemapolis and another fine indie house was the now defunct Fall Creek Pictures, the latter of which had some super comfy chairs and bean bags and pillows on the floor so you could actually sit on the floor in front of the screen, which was cool. These purveyors of arthouse not only introduced me Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's apocalyptic cannibal-comedy Delicatessen (1991), but myriad others, some of my favorites being Jaco Van Dormael's Toto Le Hero (1991), Gabriele Salvatores' Mediterraneo, Pedro Almodóvar's High Heels (1991), Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Alfonso Arau's Like Water For Chocolate (1992), Krzysztof Kieslokowski's The Double Life of Veronique (1991) and Steven Soderbergh's Kafka (1991), the last of which 30 years later still has no North American home video release - still waiting on the Criterion announcement for that last one, just to see if it was as weird and wonderful as I remember.
Anyway, while all of those film had impact on me I think it was Delicatessen that had the most impact on me, because it just felt so wholly unique and wonderful. I remember seeing the trailer at some point during another screening, which was really just a clip of a delightfully syncopated scene straight from the film, and I made a mental note to go see it. I did just that, and I was rather stunned by this weird French post-apocalyptic cannibal comedy, It's fantastical design elements the oddball characters, the quirky streak of black humor, it all just pulled me right into it's fantastical world, it was quite literally like nothing else I had seen before at that time.
The dystopian fable centers around a seemingly lone standing apartment in a post-apocalyptic village in France, it is owned by Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus, The City of Lost Children) who also owns the butcher shop on the main floor of the apartment. Apparently food in general and particularly meat are scare commodities, with the opening scenes setting up quite nicely what's to follow, with Clapet murdering the buildings handyman who has wrapped himself in garbage in an attempt to smuggle himself out if the building in a trash bin. The rouse does go as planned however, and the butcher has at him with his meat cleaver. The other inhabitants of the house are privy to this cannibalism and get there share of the meat if they can afford it, and those who are running behind on rent or meat dues are reminded by Clapet to pay-up or become part of the menu. In need of a new handyman/future lunch-meat, the butcher places an add in the newspaper, and a former circus performer Louison (Dominique Pinon, Amelie) answering the ad and gets the job, unaware that he; being eyed a s a future meal. However, he proves to be quite handy and Clapet keeps him around longer than usual to fix the place up a bit before sending the clown to slaughter, all the while charming several of the tenants with his pleasant way, including Clapet's daughter Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac) who bonds with him over their love of music, she playing the cello, with him playing the musical saw. It's a sweet love developing between, and she pleads with her father to spare him, but the tenants want meat back on the menu. When he refuses she heads down into he sewers to contact the ewer-dwelling Troglodistes, a mysterious vegetarian rebel force, tasking them with saving Louison from her father's cleaver.
Some of the other tenants include Mademoiselle Plusse (Karin Viard, The Chef's Wife) who pays her rent on her back, and the always suicidal Aurore (Silvie Laguna) who attempts to kill herself with elaborate Rube Goldberg style scenarios, as well as the "Frog Man" (Howard Vernon, She Killed in Ecstasy) who lives in a basement apartment that is flooded, where he raises snails and frogs as a food source, which really seems like the smart way to go, but he is quite a character. It's quite a strange, weird and wonderful apartment set cannibal-comedy with incredible set design and art decoration, chock full of imagination, wonderful humor, and creating a fascinating, self-contained, post-apocalyptic world inhabited by interesting characters, the vibe of it sort of feeling like a Sweeney Todd by way of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
Audio/Video: Delicatessen (1991) arrives on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray from Severin Films, restored in 4K from the original camera negative by StudioCanal under the supervision of Jeunet, presented in 2160p UHD in 1.85:1 widescreen with Dolby Vision HDR color-grading. The image looks absolutely sumptuous, depth and clarity are nicely improved, the fine detail and texturing advances over the 2010 Lionsgate Blu-ray rather handily, and the Dolby Vision color-grading does good work matching the photochemically processed colors of the film which has a very distinct color-graded patina, with lots of golden yellow/amber hues, though a few scenes lose a tiny bit of the yellow infusion and lean slightly greener, and I thought it looked terrific, with black levels much deeper and inkier, shadow detail improved throughout, which improves contrast considerably. The film is also quite a bit darker, but with the Dolby Vision color-grade it looks excellent, and there is also more information in the edges of the frame compared to the Lionsgate Blu-ray, but with deeper, richer color and superior shadow detail. Grain generally looks tightly knit, though there has ben some digital grain management, and occasionally the grain levels wax and wane, but overall I thought they did good work. The new transfer does excellent work honoring the cinematography of Darius Khondji who also shot The City of Lost Children for Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, but also went onto work with Roman Polanski (The Ninth Gate), David Fincher (Se7en, Panic Room), Bernardo Bertolucci (Stealing Beauty), Michael Haneke (Funny Games), Carter Smith (The Ruins), and Danny Boyle (The Beach).
Audio comes by way of French DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo and 5.1 surround with optional English subtitles. Delicatessen has a wonderfully idiosyncratic sound design with a fabulous score by Argentina-born French composer Carlos d'Alessio (Baxter, Vera Baxter) who dies shortly after the film release. Atop the score are discreet little flourishes that really help establish the quirky reality of the fantastical film, and of course the infamous sequence where all the tenants are engaged in a rhythmic syncopation timed to the squeaky bed springs of lovers in bed sounds terrific.
Severin's release is well-stocked with new and archival extras. We start of with the archival Audio Commentary With Co-Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, in French with English subtitles. Then a terrific 26-min archival Interview With Co-Directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet And Marc Caro who speak at length about the stylistic choices and achieving the unique aesthetic, which is all catnip for a fan of the film.
Also included is the 14-min Fine Cooked Meats – The Making Of Delicatessen, offering some vintage fly-on-the-wall video during filming, plus the 2-min Trailer.
Brand new extras come by way of the 42-min Copains Comme Cochons – Interview With Co-Director Marc Caro; and the 18- min The Tale Of 'Terry Gilliam Presents Delicatessen' – Interview With Terry Gilliam, who speaks jovially about how that 'Terry Gilliam Presents...' tag came to be attached to the film, after it being requested by the now disgraced Harvey Weinstein from Miramax, and the mutual appreciation between the directors an himself, in assition to him talking about some of his favorite scenes from the film.
- Trailer (2:17)
There is also a 3-disc Limited Edition set directly from Severin, featuring a bonus third disc and packaging extras listed below, that can be purchased HERE:
- Main Course Pieces – A Retrospective (65:19)
- Take Your Pig – Interview With Actor Jean-Claude Dreyfus
- Archival Interviews With Cast, Crew And Critics
- Jean-Pierre Jeunet Archives (8:44)
- LE BUNKER DE LA DERNIÈRE RAFALE – Short Film By Jean-Pierre Jeunet And Marc Caro
- Exclusive Booklet By Claire Donner Of The Miskatonic Institute Of Horror Studies
- Webstore Exclusive Slipcover
I will say that if you own the 2010 Lionsgate Blu-ray that release does have both the Main Course Pieces – A Retrospective and the Jean-Pierre Jeunet Archives featurette, so hang onto it if you did not get the 3-disc LE version from Severin.
Special Features:
Disc 1: 4K Ultra HD
- Audio Commentary With Co-Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- Trailer
Disc 2: Blu-ray
- Audio Commentary With Co-Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- Interview With Co-Directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet And Marc Caro (26:09)
- Fine Cooked Meats – The Making Of DELICATESSEN (14:05)
- Copains Comme Cochons – Interview With Co-Director Marc Caro (41:52)
- The Tale Of 'Terry Gilliam Presents DELICATESSEN' – Interview With Terry Gilliam (17:32)
- Trailer (2:17)
Screenshots from the Severin Films Blu-ray:
Screenshot Comparison:
Top: Lionsgate Blu-ray (2010)
Bottom: Severin Blu-ray (2025)
Buy it!
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