Delicatessen quirky
and unusual dark comedy set in post-apocalyptic France in which grain is the
currency and people do anything they can to survive. Ex-circus performer Luison
responds to an ad in the newspaper for a maintenance man in an apartment block
with a butchers on the ground floor. It becomes apparent that the Butcher uses
the ad to attract people to the apartment who he then kills and makes into meat
which is split between the other tenants in the building. Julie, the Butcher’s
daughter becomes infatuated with Luison and goes in search of underground
militant vegetarians who attempt to bring the Butcher down and steal his hoards
of grain, thus saving Luison from his fate.
Just going by that brief plot summary above it should be
clear that this film is bonkers. The film is a deliberate homage to Terry
Gilliam and this is very obvious. The way the film is shot, the dystopian
nature, even the costume are all reminders of Gilliam’s work. The camera pulls
in to close ups of peoples anguished and twisted faces and the whole film is
shot in various shades of brown, there are few other colours. The mise en scene
is so Gilliam that had the film been in English you’d be hard pushed to believe
it wasn’t one of his films. It contains all of his trademarks. The visual
comparisons go even further with the vegetarian’s costumes looking remarkably
similar to Robert DeNiro’s in Brazil. Basically, if you are a Terry Gilliam
fan, you’ll love this.
The film isn’t funny all the way through but contains
moments of genius. One woman’s increasingly elaborate attempts to kill herself
are a recurring joy. In one scene she stands on a chair with a noose around her
neck and a gun pointed at her head which is attached to a string on the door so
that when her husband opens the door, the gun will go off and the chair pulled
from under her. In addition, the oven door is open with the gas on and she has
a bottle full of pills at the ready. Despite all of this, the suicide attempt
goes wrong and it is very funny to watch. The film is scattered with moments
like this, but only lightly scattered. The real joy of the film is the cinematographic
style which is used which is dark and monochromatic but visually appealing.
Due to the lack of funny moments and confusing story the
film is inevitably a bit dull in places but each of these moments is quickly erased
by an action set piece or subtle bit of humour. The film on the whole is a success
and is worth watching for its style if nothing else.
7/10
Two hundred years after the events of Alien 3 military scientists create a clone of Ellen Ripley
(Sigourney Weaver) complete with alien embryo growing inside her. After separating
the two, the Ripley clone is kept alive for further study. One of the side effects
of the cloning is that Ripley’s DNA has been crossed with that of her alien
baby and she now possesses super human strength and acidic blood as well as a
kind of telepathic link with the aliens. Meanwhile a group of mercenaries
arrive aboard the ship carrying a cargo of kidnapped humans which the
scientists implant with alien embryos. Unsurprisingly these aliens escape and
run amok on the ship causing its remaining crew to run for their lives.
