clapet ( jean claude dreyfus ) be a butcher who run the generically name delicatessen house in a bomb out look apartment building fill to the brim with eccentric . since food be scarce in the film world and clapet have devise a scheme to provide himself and his tenant with a regular supply of meat he run ad in the local paper for handyman and and after they fix a few thing on the building and they become the main course . when the film begin and we see a man who try unsuccessfully to escape . the bulk of the film be the story of stan luison ( dominique pinon ) and who be the late person to answer clapet advertisement . this film be definitely an acquire taste and so to speak . i have acquire the taste and and for me and it a positive . delicatessen be set in a weird and post apocalyptic and alternate universe that be not entirely dissimilar to the setting of terry gilliam brazil ( 1985 ) in fact and this could very easily be the same world a brazil and just that that film be situate in it titular locale and and this would be a less fashionable section of france . like brazil and most of the production design the costume and music and television programming and etc . suggest an historic setting and say about the 1940s and but it also seem to be set in the future and or at least an alternate present . in place of brazil elaborate and chaotic technology and director marc caro and jean pierre jeunet have create a multi level rube goldberg construction . goldberg be an american cartoonist and sculptor know for drawing of incredibly complex contraption that often perform simple task . this recurs from small scale the interconnected tube in the building and the us of the australian and to medium scalesaurore interligator ( silvie laguna ) attempt suicide set ups and to the grand scale of the film and where each character and or set of character and be interlock in different way that have a small and but complex causal effect on the whole . sometimes and these concatenation be more simultaneous than causal and a in the ingenious bedspring symphony near the beginning of the film . appropriate to it ultimate subject matter and the visuals be focus on decay and dinginess . the delicatessen be filthy and the apartment building be fall apart . the tenant own a lot of broken thing and and for those thing that aren not break and there a good chance they will get break a the film progress . ( and by the way and if you love the production design and atmosphere of the film and and wouldn not mind see something with a similar mood and but serious instead of a surrealistic black comedy like delicatessen and check out david cronenberg spider ( 2002 ) ) . all the tenant have various eccentricity and often involve food . one of the most interesting tenant be an old man who decide to harvest his own meal by turn his apartment into a swamp and via regularly run water flood the apartment and and inhabit by frog and snail . he have a huge pile of empty snail shell stack up in a corner . water be a motif in the film probably because of it relationship to food and a a mean of necessary nourishment and although ironically and in a world characterize by food shortage and water be mostly waste in the film . while not a depressing film ( it wasn not to me and at least and although not that i dislike depress film ) and delicatessen isn not exactly uplift and either and although there be a message of hope at the end and i suppose . it definitely not for all audience and but if youre a fan of gilliam and cronenberg and david lynch and and similar director and you should definitely try a meal at this delicatessen .