"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."
January 1, 1970