Delicatessen

This 1991 film from Caro and Jeunet, we realised about half an hour in, is amazingly good. Really, frankly very surprisingly, it turns into a great work. Where did that come from?
The directors are formally interesting enough to use cuts (the clock tick rythms) and more particularly colours, to convey something beyond the content; why the formalism of cinema is the justification of cinema. The yellowish, dark sand blasted outsides provides the house as a microcosm and at once connected, as the wind blows. The post-apocalyptic setting works very well on a double level. It at once means they aren't tied to anything, but certainly evokes memories of collaboration, and the hell people will inflict in such siutations. This film is, in a way, about responsibility, intelligently smuggled into what could be seen as a slice of macabre.
The dream character of the heightened colours is at times funny and involving, but certainly keeps the powerful atmosphere going. Excellent, excellent, excellent, a joyful surprise.