Delicatessen
Actually a bunch of things are happening in my life lately. The most recent element is most definitely the fact that we became Yelp Elite. As a German student, the term “elite” will always make us cringe, and it is not much different for Yelp. But somehow it is nice to have that badge, especially since we got invited to it out of the blue. (That is quite amusing considering everything you read online involved people applying for it.)
Also, soon it is July 4th, and we got some ribs on sale. I love ribs to pieces and I am sure I will love tomorrow’s ribs. Right after watching Delicatessen, it makes you feel quite strange, haha. But unlike what the premise suggests the film was actually not very gory. Certainly it started with the death of a poor man, and everybody talking about killing other humans, but ultimately you don’t see much blood. Even when the evil guy shoves a knife into his own head, he just tumbles for a few minutes, says something relatively amusing and drops dead. Now I gave away the end of the film, but even that doesn’t matter. Everybody knows that the film will end up that way.
“Delicatessen” is one of those delightful black comedies… of which I have never seen any! Most black comedies have something bittersweet with them, which I always assumed to be an innate characteristic of these stories, because such black comedies are supposed to be a sarcastic view onto humanity. But “Delicatessen” is different, you’d think Jean-Pierre Jeunet has a love for humans like dogs do. All the characters in his films are flawed, likable and extremely strange. Jeunet believes that there is a curious child in everyone of us, and his films are calling out to it more than any other filmmaker does. I am surprised that “Delicatessen” is not a hipster favorite – certainly Amélie is.
What makes a human being into an interesting person? It is really hard to say. Without any doubt, it would be related to how eccentric you are. But neither normality nor strangeness are perceived as a good thing. While it seems that there might be some golden middleground, I highly doubt it. In reality, it’s a trade-off. Do you choose to be interesting like characters in movies, especially this one? Or do you prefer to just not stand out and die forgiven and forgotten?
But I digress. I remember how back in the day, I loved Amélie when I saw it in theaters. Later on I thought the world was dark, hateful and evil, so I was into realistic bleak films and hated the film for its incredibly cheap kitsch. But the third time I saw it, I came back to appreciating the beauty of the film. For Delicatessen, the same thing could have happened. Both Amélie and Delicatessen are delightful, full of optimism for those who are different from others. Heartily recommended. They are just absolutely impossible to hate unless you are an angsty teen who is into ‘grander’ films. Nothing is grand about these movies, but they are still great.