review for Delicatessen on AllMovie

From its gloriously loopy opening sequence to its hilariously rhythmic love scene to its climactic showdown in the bowels of city sewers, Delicatessen is a bizarrely inspired, darkly comic fantasy. Not merely weird for weirdness' sake, the film is a surprisingly tender tale revolving around Louison (Dominique Pinon), a good man trapped in a bad world, forever pining for his lost soul-mate. Pinion's Louison is heroic, innocent and comic all at the same time. What makes Delicatessen most memorable, however, is its dream-like, post-apocalyptic look. Directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet devised the film with writer Gilles Adrien, primarily an author of comic books; given its unique visuals, it makes sense that the similarly inventive Terry Gilliam (Brazil) championed the film's worldwide release.