Delicatessen

media release: France | 1991 | DCP | 99 min. | French with English subtitles

Director: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Cast: Marie-Laure Dougnac, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus

In post-apocalypse France, residents of a still-standing apartment building rely on their in-house butcher to capture and carve up what is now the most abundant source of food: people. Complications ensue when their latest meal-to-be, a former clown (rubber-faced Pinon) arrives on the scene and proves himself to be perhaps too handy to eat. Directing duo Jenuet & Caro arrived on the scene with this first feature as fully-formed stylists. The remarkable blend of pitch-black comedy, eye-popping color palettes, and melancholy-infused whimsy that informs their subsequent features, City of Lost Children and Amelie, are displayed in full-force throughout this cult classic.

Admission free for all screenings, seating limited. No admission 15 minutes after scheduled start times. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions.

NEW FRENCH RESTORATIONS: Beginning with the Lumieres and the origins of motion pictures more than 130 years ago, France has remained one of the world’s leading contributors to the art of cinema. From January through April, the Cinematheque will present six French feature films, all shown in new digital restorations, that cover nearly sixty years of French cinema history, from the 1930s to the 1990s. The lineup begins with a weird and fascinating psychological thriller unknown to most American audiences, Paul Vecchiali’s The Strangler. Plus, Manon, an Henri-Georges Clouzot masterpiece made before the director’s The Wages of Fear and Diabolique; Jeunet and Caro’s cult classic, Delicatessen; Godard’s futuristic mind-melter Alphaville; and Lady Killer & The Strange Mr. Victor, two late 1930s gems by the great Jean Grémillon, subject of a 2015 Cinematheque series.