"In "Delicatessen," the directors have created a freakishly fantastic universe out of time -- as if the world as we knew it ended around 1940 (which it might have) -- and out of place -- butcher shops are not called delicatessens in France, and the only clients of this one are the building's residents -- but somehow believably familiar. The residents are quirky but human, like people you might see on the subway and wonder about. That's what makes the film and its world work. That's also what makes it lugubrious (this week's rump steak was last week's resident). "The situations are caricatures, but the characters aren't," says Jeunet. "The actors play it all very seriously. If they had played it in an exaggerated way it would have been maudlin, a farce. It would have been Monty Python.""

"Somewhere in the mist-shrouded future of France, Louison (Pinon), a grieving ex-clown takes a job as janitor in a crumbling apartment block. Unbeknown to him, this job has a history and previous incumbents have ended up on the neighbour's dinner table via the butcher's block. When Louison innocently falls for the butcher's myopic daughter, the knife is held back to spare her feelings. But as bellies begin to rumble, will love be enough to keep Louison out of le charcuterie? This troubled romance provides the bare skeleton on which Jeunet and Caro hang their dreams. A hugely enjoyable film, "Delicatessen" welds comedy and magic into a bizarre, grotesque fantasy of an oddball dystopian future."

""Delicatessen" (Fine Arts) is a nightmare comedy with a childlike center of gravity. Set in a truly bleak future--a post-Apocalypse French city where meat-eaters prey on each other and vegetarians are underground insurgents hiding out in the sewers--it adopts a bizarre, playful tone. The macabre imagery and horrific shocks and jolts--the decaying hotel rooms and acts of insane violence--are recorded with a wistful, wackily innocent eye. Created by two young French filmmakers--Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro--"Delicatessen" is a fearsomely intense movie that mixes moods with formidable assurance. A Grand Prize winner at the Chicago Film Festival, it's loaded with horrific images and macabre jolts that keep resonating eerily in your mind's eye."

"Marc Caro as Fox"

"Edith Ker as Grandmother"

"Rufus as Robert Kube"

"Karin Viard as Mademoiselle Plusse"

"Ticky Holgado as Marcel Tapioca"

"Jacques Mathou as Roger"

"Howard Vernon as Frog Man"

"Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Clapet"

"Jeunet and Caro split up their filmmaking chores--Jeunet directs the actors, Caro is more responsible for design and effects--and perhaps that's why there's such a satisfying density to "Delicatessen." The film itself is playful, weird, unpredictable and a bit tasteless. It has all the prerequisites of a true cult movie, which, in France, it already is. This is one foreign film that probably won't languish in the usual art-house ghetto; "Delicatessen" (Times-rated: Mature, for sensuality and violence) outshocks and outplays the American horror comedies at their own game. It's a feast of fools, a banquet of frissons : a nasty, childlike, murderously funny show."

"The butcher (Dreyfus) who owns the block has developed a system to support his tenants by hiring odd-job men whom he fattens up, then turns into tasty meats that usefully supplement the lentils that have taken over as hard currency in the starving city. The only people who remain untouched by this meat eater's corruption are the butcher's saintly daughter (Clapet), a wistful but myopic cellist, and the old man in the cellar who has turned his home into a watery swamp to support the two apparent essentials of French cuisine, frogs and snails."

"Dominique Pinon as Louison"

"Marie-Laure Dougnac as Julie Clapet"

"Katharine Troth (as Kat)"

"Laura Avakian (as Laura)"

"Gianni Franco as Video (as Richard Cross)"

"Ann-Gisel Glass as Myrna"

"Geretta Geretta as Chocolate (as Janna Ryann)"

"Cindy Leadbetter as Diana"

"Massimo Vanni as Taurus (as Alex McBride)"

"Henry Luciani as Duke"

"Fausto Lombardi as Deus (as Tony Lombardo)"

"Ottaviano Dell'Acqua as Kurt (as Richard Raymond)"

"Jean-Christophe Brétigniere as Lucifer (as Christoph Bretner)"

"Daws Butler as Preacher Mouse"

"The Hollywood Choir Boys as Vocalists"

"Mel Blanc as Grandpa Squirrel"

"“Thou shalt not kill”. Sounds like a mighty good book of rules, but them men didn’t follow them."

"Betsy Jones-Moreland — Evelyn Gern"

"Antony Carbone — Harold Gern"

"You mean you'd exile one-third of the human race?"

"Robert Towne — Martin Joyce"

"In nature's scheme of things, there are certain plants which are carnivorous, or eating plants. The Venus Fly Trap is one of the best known of these plants. A fly drawn to the plant by its sweet syrup, brushes against triggered bristles. Just how these plants digest their pray has yet to be explained. There is much still to learn about these fascinating eating plants. This is a newcomer: Triffidus Celestus, brought to earth on the meteorite during the Day of the Triffids."

"Gilgi Hauser — Teresa de la Vega"

"John Tate — Captain — S.S. Midland"

"Carole Ann Ford — Bettina"

"Nicole Maurey — Christine Durrant"

"From the greatest science fiction novel of all time!"

"Arthur Gross — Flight 356 radioman"

"Janette Scott — Karen Goodwin"

"Howard Keel — Bill Masen"

"Beware the triffids... they grow... know... walk... talk... stalk... and kill!"

"Triffids take over the world! From the greatest science-fiction novel of all time!"

"Spine Chilling Terror"

"Man eating plants! Spine chilling terror!"

"Tom Goodwin: Keep behind me. There's no sense in getting killed by a plant."

"Kieron Moore — Tom Goodwin"

"Colette Wilde — Nurse Jamieson"