Delicatessen (1991)

Delicatessen – Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Summary: In a post-apocalyptic France, grain, lentils or the very shoes you wear on your feet have taken over from currency and what were once life’s little luxuries – like meat in particular – is scarce.  Ex-circus clown Louison (Dominique Pinon) arrives in a quiet town to take up an advertised vacant position in routine maintenance for an apartment building.  Accepted, he lives and works in the collection of flats that are filled with its variety of residents, including the landlord (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) who works and runs the petite delicatessen on the ground floor.  His daughter (Marie-Laure Dougnac) also resides in the building and strikes up a close friendship with Louison, who she must now try and protect from the dangers the world now lives in and the sinister plan that’s behind the job that lured him here.

My Review:  From the creators that would later bring us the enchanting Amélie and wondrously gothic The City of Lost Children, comes their debut Delicatessen.  I now know the pair originally started out making music videos and adverts in France, before splashing out in this first big feature film that’ll tickle any fans of black comedy.  It’s a good thing they did take the plunge as it’s certainly rewarded them with genuine and admiring film fans not just in the circle of world cinema devotees.  Delicatessen is darkly amusing and pokes fun at how far we the human race might go to still enjoy eating in a world skint on rations.  It includes cannibalism, vegetarian freedom fighters and botched suicide attempts and yet the film is still understatedly magical and charming.  You’ll find it hard not to love the weird quirky characters in France’s dystopian yet fantastical future.

My Rating: 2.5/5

What’s your favourite French film, French director or actor?  Let me know in the comments section below!

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The Eye (2002)

The Eye – Danny Pang & Oxide Chun Pang (the Pang Brothers)

Gin gwai (original title)

Summary:  20 year-old Mun (Angelica Lee) has been blind ever since the age of two, but thankfully her eyesight is restored after undertaking a successful eye cornea transplant surgery.  Despite being able to see again, Mun starts to feel everything is not as it seems as she begins to see mysterious figures that are becoming increasingly intrusive towards her.  Frightened, she goes to see Dr. Wah (Lawrence Chou), a psychologist, who at first doesn’t believe her when she tells him what she sees, but eventually decides to join Mun on a trip to northern Thailand to discover more about what happened to her eye donor before they died.

My Review:  This, alongside other horrors like Ringu (1998) and Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), are why Asian horrors first got noticed – because they’ll scare the **** out of you!  The Eye (2002) has brilliant tense-building scenes that just keep building until you think you can’t take watching anymore.  The elevator scene in particular is one you’ll definitely need your pillow for.  I’ve not seen the Hollywood remake staring Jessica Alba, but with a killer storyline such as this I’m not surprised it’s been redone and has a few spin-offs.  There’s some nice spine-chilling scares in the first half, which sadly tails off towards the end.  Still definitely worth a watch though.

My Rating: 3.5/5

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