"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.""