Some say ‘Delicatessen’, with its 156 minute run-time, is a slog. Three hours of film cut down from eight, taking place entirely within a midday Parisian deli, can be a bit much. Half-heard conversations. A 13 minute single-shot discussion of death, children and cheese.
Others say no modern work illuminates as many centuries of French history, family tensions and socio-economic struggles as does this modern French classic.
***Auteur theory: New Wave theory holds that the two female protagonists are simply puppets for Clement Barreau’s own failed marriages, disgraced career as a pop-signer, and his desire to ‘burn down the Sorbonne and stand like Napoleon within’.
After Clement Barreau’s infamous 1967 Dakar rally accident, his body was returned to Paris from the colonial deserts.
C’est la vie, mon ami…
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***Easily manipulable images and standardized, formalized text are happening right now. Keep your bullshit detectors finely-tuned.