Delicatessen (1992)
92%RT Audience Score: 91%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
15 wins & 16 nominations total
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet deftly combines horror, sci-fi, and humor in Delicatessen, a morbid comedy set in a visually ravishing futuristic dystopia.
Delicatessen is like a romantic comedy, but with cannibalism and a post-apocalyptic setting. It’s weird, it’s wild, and it’s surprisingly beautiful. The molelike inhabitants, the lentil-men, and the 21st-century gizmos all blend together in a way that’s both hilarious and unsettling. And let’s not forget the achingly sweet love story that ties it all together. It’s a movie that’s hard to describe, but easy to enjoy. Just don’t watch it on an empty stomach.
Production Company(ies)
Red Envelope Entertainment, Representational Pictures,
Distributor
Miramax Films
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
France
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for violence
Year of Release
1992
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.66 : 1 (original aspect ratio, European theatrical ratio)1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 38m
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Language(s):French
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Country of origin:France
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Apr 17, 1991 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 26, 2008
Genre(s)
Sci-Fi
Keyword(s)
starring Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Rufus, Ticky Holgado, Anne-Marie Pisani, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro, written by Gilles Adrien, Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, sci-fi, horror, comedy, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Steven Rea, Clifford Terry, Michael Wilmington, Duane Byrge, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Variety Staff, MPAA rating R, produced by Claudie Ossard, cannibalism, post-apocalyptic, France, dystopia, butcher, handyman, circus clown, lovable, visually ravishing, surreal, quirky, underground army, sex symphony, frog man, cluttered sets, top horror movies, MCU movies, Netflix series, TV premiere dates
Worldwide gross: $1,794,187
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $3,840,503
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,244
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 418,812
US/Canada gross: $1,794,187
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $3,840,503
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,882
US/Canada opening weekend: $4,733
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $10,131
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,703
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): FRF 24,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Marie-Laure Dougnac – Julie Clapet
Jean-Claude Dreyfus – Clapet
Rufus – Robert Kube
Ticky Holgado – Marcel Tapioca
Anne-Marie Pisani – Madame Tapioca
Director(s)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro
Writer(s)
Gilles Adrien, Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Producer(s)
Claudie Ossard
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
15 wins & 16 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (55) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (6)
With its molelike inhabitants, its sprawling war between flesh-eaters and lentil-men, its achingly sweet love story and surrealist blend of dusty antiquities and 21st-century gizmos, Delicatessen is indescribably wild.
November 21, 2013 | Rating: 3.5/4
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
All of this is handled in a breezy, off-handed, nutsy manner, as the superb cast combines to help bring it off.
November 21, 2013 | Rating: 3.5/4
Clifford Terry
Chicago Tribune
TOP CRITIC
Delicatessen is a fearsomely intense movie that mixes moods with formidable assurance.
November 21, 2013
Michael Wilmington
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
With their detached, sardonic and decidedly sick slant, Jeunet and Caro have served up a burnt-to-a-crisp feast.
June 5, 2007
Duane Byrge
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
There are no characters to care about or remember afterward — just a lot of flashy technique involving decor, some glib allegorical flourishes, and the obligatory studied film-school weirdness.
June 5, 2007
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
A zany little film that’s a startling and clever debut for co-helmers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.
June 5, 2007
Variety Staff
Variety
TOP CRITIC
Thriving on eccentricity, the film also utilizes an artistic entwining of music and sound effects, tinged with a spectacularly compelling atmosphere of unease.
September 11, 2020 | Rating: 9/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
Funny, imaginative, ghoulish and rather beautiful.
July 19, 2018
Harriet Waugh
The Spectator
If we take the idea of a romantic comedy set in the ruins of a dead society and dressed up with cannibal horror seriously at all, it’s hard to see how it could turn out better than this.
December 6, 2016 | Rating: 9/10
Tim Brayton
Antagony & Ecstasy
The movie, take it from me, is a lot more fun to sit through than to describe in a single sentence.
November 21, 2013 | Rating: 3/4
Stephen Hunter
Baltimore Sun
Bizarre, brilliant, but wayward in its dnouement.
November 21, 2013 | Rating: 4/5
David Parkinson
Radio Times
A must see, Delicatessen is an absolute delight and a bizarrely madcap experience.
November 21, 2013
Roger Hurlburt
South Florida Sun-Sentinel…
Plot
Centered on a post-apocalyptic society where food is scarce and used as currency. In an apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor. The owner of the eatery also owns the apartment building and is in need of a new maintenance man since the prior one “mysteriously” disappeared. A former clown applies for the job and the butcher’s intent is to have him work for as little as possible. The clown and butcher’s daughter fall in love and she tries to foil her father’s plans by contacting the “troglodytes”, a grain eating sub-group of society who live entirely underground.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
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