This film is currently unavailable
Delicatessen
Jeunet and Caro's endlessly inventive and wildly enjoyable post-apocalyptic black comedy, about a sinister butcher and the circus clown who becomes his nemesis.
Comedy 1990 100 mins
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Overview
Writer-director team Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro burst onto the scene with this visually astounding, anarchically bonkers and brilliant black comedy. In a post-apocalyptic France where food is scarce, a butcher with a suspicious supply of meat, Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus), has become a local kingpin. When circus clown Louison (Dominique Pinon) arrives in town, his skill with knives earns him a place at Clapet's table - until he unwisely falls for the butcher's daughter, Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac).
With its blackly comic violence, cartoonish characters and eccentric musical interludes, Delicatessen's release in 1991 marked a breath of fresh air for French cinema, melding the visual sleekness of the contemporary 'Cinéma du look' scene with the warped, steampunk-style sensibility of Terry Gilliam. The result was a breakthrough hit in the UK, leading a path to Hollywood for director Jeunet (Alien: Resurrection) and earning the film's enduring cult reputation.
Contains suicide theme and strong comic horrorRelated
Comedy
The Happiness of the Katakuris The Happiness of the Katakuris
Comedy 2001 113 mins Director: Takashi Miike
The Sound of Music meets Dawn of the Dead in Takashi Miike's deranged mix of grotesque stop-motion animation, surreal musical numbers, and zombie melodrama.
The Beast The Beast
Comedy 1975 98 mins Director: Walerian Borowczyk
An outrageous classic of erotic cinema, Walerian Borowczyk’s playful and subversive fantasy finds a horny heiress courting the ravenous desires of a wild beast.
La Grande Bouffe La Grande Bouffe
Comedy 1973 130 mins Director: Marco Ferreri
Marco Ferreri's provocative and controversial satire about four friends who retreat to a country mansion with the intention of eating themselves to death.
The Watermelon Woman The Watermelon Woman
Comedy 1997 85 mins Director: Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye's smart and funny romance - thought to be the first feature directed by a black lesbian - remains a breath of fresh air decades on.
Orchestra Rehearsal Orchestra Rehearsal
Comedy 1979 72 mins Director: Federico Fellini
Fellini's allegorical pseudo-documentary about an orchestra rehearsal that descends into anarchy and vandalism while a TV crew looks on.
Factotum Factotum
Drama 2005 90 mins Director: Bent Hamer
A distinctive adaptation from the writings of Charles Bukowski, Matt Dillon plays Henry Chinaski, a drunk in search of a paycheque.
Nineties Cult Classics
Irma Vep Irma Vep
Drama 1996 99 mins Director: Olivier Assayas
Olivier Assayas' sexy and stylish ode to the madness of filmmaking, with Maggie Cheung as the Hong Kong movie star playing a Catwoman-style anti-heroine.
Suture Suture
Thriller 1994 96 mins Director: Scott Mcgehee
David Siegel and Scott McGehee's sumptuously shot neo-noir is a moody, monochrome meditation on race and identity politics.
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
Horror 1991 81 mins Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Shinya Tsukamoto's sequel has the Iron Man transforming into a cyberkinetic gun when a gang of vicious skinheads kidnap his son.
Khrustalyov, My Car! Khrustalyov, My Car!
Drama 1998 146 mins Director: Alexei German
Aleksei German's hysterical and hallucinatory satire unfolds amid the chaos and paranoia of Stalin's 'doctor's plot' in 1953 USSR.
Festen Festen
Drama 1998 101 mins Director: Thomas Vinterberg
A family reunion turns both incredibly dark and unexpectedly hilarious, in the infamous first film of the Dogme 95 movement initiated by director Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier.
The Addiction The Addiction
Horror 1994 82 mins Director: Abel Ferrara
Lili Taylor and Christopher Walken star in Abel Ferrara's raw, intense and intelligent take on the vampire myth - selected for the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time Poll by The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw.
New
Winter Sleep Winter Sleep
Drama 2014 197 mins Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Modern master filmmaker Nuri Bilge Celyan’s Palme d’Or winner: an extraordinary, epic drama.
The Wild Pear Tree The Wild Pear Tree
Drama 2018 189 mins Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s follow-up to his Palme d’Or-winning Winter Sleep is a persuasive portrait of a young writer at odds with his hometown and family.
Sympathy for the Devil Sympathy for the Devil
Drama 1968 101 mins Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard intercuts footage of The Rolling Stones composing their classic Sympathy for the Devil with punchy agitprop sketches on the global anti-imperialist struggle.
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Crime 2011 151 mins Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
A modern masterpiece from major filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, following police and prosecutors as they escort a murderer through the bleak Anatolian steppes in search of a buried body.
Glastonbury Fayre Glastonbury Fayre
Documentary 1971 87 mins Director: Peter Neal
Nic Roeg made this film of the first Glastonbury Festival to feature the pyramid stage - with a line up including Melanie, Terry Reid, Family, Fairport Convention, Traffic, Linda Lewis and Arthur Brown.
Taxi Tehran Taxi Tehran
Documentary 2015 81 mins Director: Jafar Panahi
Following a personally difficult but artistically rewarding spell making films under house arrest, Jafar Panahi is back on the streets of Tehran.