Delicatessen

Salon.com Jenn Shreve

I didn't need to understand every word to see what a beautiful film this was - each camera shot a carefully composed masterpiece that immerses the viewer in a realm of luxuriant imagination.

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Delicatessen is an ingeniously funny film with a surprisingly sweet romance at its center.

Variety Staff (Not Credited)

Beautifully textured, cleverly scripted and eerily shot (often with a wideangle lens making characters look even weirder), Delicatessan is a zany little film that's a startling and clever debut for co-helmers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge

The slapstick is classic-level stuff, the kind of domino-effect precision that is lost in most of today's clumsy farces.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Set in some sort of post-apocalyptic Parisian deli o' the damned, this lunatic's take on the future of man is so delightfully warped that it's impossible to shake it out of your head and go get a decent night's sleep.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

What keeps the film going, and helps it keep its comic tone, is the constant threat of cataclysm - and the deadpan Buster Keaton charm of the ever-responsive Pinon as he combats the giant Rube Goldberg meat-grinder that the house, in effect, is. [17 Apr 1992]

Chicago Tribune Clifford Terry

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's "Delicatessen" is an exuberantly wacky, perversely droll black comedy with an ample dose of gentle whimsy-"Eating Raoul" out of "Mr. Hulot's Holiday." [17 Apr 1992]

Empire Jack Yeovil

This is still a delightfully original picture, poised perfectly between farce and horror.

The New York Times Janet Maslin

Among the things that deserve mention in this lightweight but sometimes subversively stylish farce are its ingenious credit sequence, its lively editing by Herve Schneid, its use of code names like Artichoke Heart and Cordon Bleu in the guerrilla war that rages underground and its reference to a couple of odd inventions.

Los Angeles Times Michael Wilmington

The film itself is playful, weird, unpredictable and a bit tasteless. [10 Apr 1992]

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Delicatessen may be junk food, but it's served with the discretion of nouvelle cuisine. [07 Apr 1992]

USA Today Mike Clark

co-directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro know their craft; of the films here, only Othello has a more trenchant visual style. [30 Apr 1992]

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A smirky cleverness infects much of the picture, yet some scenes are so skillfully created that it's hard not to admire them, and Dominique Pinon's sensitive performance as a retired circus man gives the movie a soul. [10 Apr 1992]

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

Delicatessen is a carniverous sausage - lots of fat, a few meaty bits. [10 Apr 1992]

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Delicatessen seems overstuffed at times, unable to digest its own surfeit of jokes, tricks, and surprises.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

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.

Washington Post Rita Kempley

A punky, futuristic effort by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, it is a tasteless variation on "Sweeney Todd" set geographically near the border of Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."