Delicatessen

Not surprisingly, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, the directors of this 1991 postapocalyptic French comedy about a tenement and butcher’s shop, come from experimental video and animation, and Gilles Adrien, who helped them write the macabre script, comes from comic books. Some pale echoes here of French poetic realism (mainly Clair and Carne), Gilliam, Lynch, and the Coen brothers, but despite the singular appearance of the hero (Diva’s Dominique Pinon), there are no characters to care about or remember afterwardjust a lot of flashy technique involving decor, some glib allegorical flourishes, and the obligatory studied film-school weirdness. With Marie-Laure Dougnac, Karen Viard, and Jean-Claude Dreyfus. In French with subtitles. 95 min. (JR)

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