“Delicatessen” Rhythmically plays the despair of the future⁉︎ Genius Genet’s masterpiece black comedy

A world depicted with sound and rhythm

If you just read the story, it seems quite grotesque and controversial, but Genet and Caro manage to portray it visually.

Particularly legendary is the scene in which the everyday lives of the residents are layered one on top of the other to create the sound and rhythm of an orchestra. A man and a woman embrace, and the bed creaks to a steady rhythm. Along with this, the rhythms of a cello, a metronome, the beating of mats, pumping air into bicycles, painting, and toy manufacturing in a factory accelerate and speed up, until the film ends with an orgasmic climax (a roar). According to Genet in the audio commentary, "This scene has since been imitated in a variety of films and advertisements," making it a truly iconic scene that had a wide impact in the 1990s.

"Delicatessen" trailer

However, it should not be forgotten that this film will not only surprise and impact the audience; it is also a work packed with the various elements that Genet and Caro love so much.

For example, the physical humor and slapstick that can be felt throughout the film was borrowed from the comedies of Buster Keaton, but Jeunet also cited the cartoons of Tex Avery (the animator who created "Looney Tunes" and dominated Hollywood in the 1940s and 1950s) and Robert Doisneau (a representative French photographer who left behind a wide range of works from journalism to fashion) as sources of inspiration.

I have a photo book by Doisneau titled "Paris" in front of me that I borrowed from the library, and as I open the pages, I am completely captivated by the many humorous works that vividly depict the lives of ordinary people. Among them are some that use butcher shops as their motif, and they seem like living copies of "Delicatessen."

reference)Robert Doisneau official website

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