Delicatessen

20 years ago, my girlfriend and I went to watch a movie at the late and lamented New Yorker repertory cinema in London. Don’t for the life of me remember what the movie was, but during the previews, this trailer was shown.

We laughed, looked at each other and agreed we had to go and see it.

When the opening credits started rolling, which are absolutely the most amazing and imaginative credits I’ve ever seen, I knew it was going to be fantastic. And it was.


The setting is a post-apocalypse France sometime in the middle of the 20th century, in a lone tenement surrounded by rubble. On the ground floor is a butcher shop, and in the floors above are an assortment of quirky tenants. The butcher hires handymen, none of whom last very long. His latest hire is an unemployed clown, who his daughter Julie falls in love with. She knows the secret of why the handymen all disappear, so she goes to see the Underground, literally, the Troglodistes, who live in the sewers, shows them a sample of the grain her father has hoarded and tells them they can have it if they will rescue her beloved clown.

This is absolutely one of my favourite movies, a dark comedy/adventure/romance that is wonderfully inventive and unlike anything Hollywood is capable of making. It reminded me in tone and style of some of the Belgian and French comics or bandes dessinée I grew up reading.

If you’ve never seen it, please do.