Chimene Rizk

201700104
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Write a paper about the mise en scene and the camera language interpreting why the filmmaker used
it that way.

Co-directed by the French filmmakers, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, the cult classic movie
Delicatessen (1991), represents a fine mixture of horror, sci-fi and humor aspects, sewed in a coherent
visual outcome: a post-apocalyptic environment, struggling with food deficiency, resulting in cannibalism.
Inspired by their animation and visuals path (as cited in Europe 11), the co-directors succeeded in creating
a future dystopia relying, mostly, on the mise en scene and the camera language. This paper will be
elaborating, accordingly, the use of these two characteristics and the meaning conveyed by each.

1) The Mise en Scene

1-1) The Use of Colors:
I) The Red
Red is perceived as meat and is seen in the Delicatessen building, especially with Clapet the
butcher, and his cannibal neighbors.
Red combined with yellow or green in the shots showing Julie and Louison represents the danger,
and Louison as meat.
II) The green
Green is perceived as the anti-cannibalism color and is found in the scenes related to the anti-
cannibal characters:
a) The green-man and his room full of aquatic animals: crocodile, snails and frogs, where we
can see him eating snails.

b) Troglodyte, the enemies of the cannibals who survive underground eating beans.
c) Aurore, the woman in green and whose kitchen is fully green, which accentuate the effect
of her not being a cannibal.
d) Julie whose wardrobe contains green and who’s always opposing to his dad and trying to
save the new visitor (meat to be), and falls in love with Louison.

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e) Louison, who came from outside of Delicatessen, driven by the green car, and who claims
that he is a vegetarian.
Here, it is important to mention that we never see the characters a, b, c and d waiting in the line
for their meat.

III) Red vs. Green

a) This shot shows the difference

between the red (cannibalism) Delicatessen
building and the green (anti-cannibalism)
car arriving from outside, transporting the
new “meal”, which is, in this case, Louison.

b) This shot shows the opposition

between the two characters Aurore and
Robert, Robert, in red, who was first a
cannibal and Aurore, in green, who is anti-
cannibal.

c) This shot shows the opposition

between Aurore, dressing in green in her
green kitchen, and his husband, dressing in
red and whom we see previously in the
butcher shop buying human meat.

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d) This shows the opposition between the

green room of the green-man and the
outside in Delicatessen which is reddish

IV) The yellow

a) Louison
He is the one who brings the yellow, the sun, the light, the warmth to the people he
impresses. There is always yellow in his wardrobe
b) Louison and Julie

The shot on the left shows Julie, before Louison’s arrival, sitting in a slightly reddish mood.
Whereas the shot on the right shows her sitting in an intensified yellowish mood, with
Louison’s presence. The two shots have the same source of light, the window, but with
Louison’s presence on the right, the sun shines and gives the yellowish impact to the whole
mise en scene.

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We can notice the presence of green and red in their clothing. Green is because they are not
cannibals and red is because Louison and their love is in danger because he is perceived as
meat.
V) Yellow vs. Red

When both Julie and Louison are together, the yellowish mood reigns, and even red is scene
yellow (Louison’s shirt). Whereas with the presence of Clapet, the same shirt of Louison changes
its color from yellow to red and this is because he is in danger of getting caught and killed for his
meat. Actually Louison’s position in the shot on the right is like a hanged meat ready to be cut.

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VI) Transitions
a) Plusse
when Plusse visited Louison she started
enjoying his company and dancing with
him. And although her dress was red, we
can notice than she is in a yellowish
mood.

Here we can see the nightgown of Plusse

in red and white, no presence of yellow.

In this shot we see her nightgown in red

and yellow. Yellow is the touch of
Louison. And this scene shows Plusse
amused watching Louison. Here we can
see that she started being by his side
against Clapet.

b) Robert’s Transition from Red to Green

Robert and his friend/brother, in their work
place, wearing red and sitting in a reddish
mood.

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Robert dressing in red with a reddish
background opposing to Aurore dressing in
green with a green background

Robert dressing in green after Clapet have

mistaken him with Louison and cutted his leg
and sold it. Since then, Robert refused to eat
meat from the butcher. His friend who is still
a cannibal is dressed in red and the mood is
still reddish, but we can see him upset and
uncomfortable with the reddish mood.

“- je t’assure tu dois manger un morceau.

- j’ai pas faim »

c) Aurore and the Voice

Aurore was controlled by a voice encouraging her to kill

herself. We discover later on that it was Robert’s companion
who was scaring her. It wasn’t really clear if it’s in order to
kill her and have her as a meat but we can actually interpret
it that way because all the objects she used while trying to
commit suicide were red, and red is the color of the
cannibals, and the voice was of one of them.

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d) Transition in the Wiping-out scene

here we can see the water flow coming
towards all the cannibals, the water at the
door is seen as green which shows the
opposition and how the “greens” are wiping
out the “reds”.

here we can see the yellowish light coming

out of the door which tells that it is Louison
behind the wipe-out of Delicatessen’s
building.

here we can see the building being wiped

out from a top shot which shows the power
of the flow. We can also see the opposition
of colors, the red building and the yellow
flow.

Here we can see the kids, dressing in green

and enjoying the water, enjoying the wipe
out.

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e) Delicatessen’s Village Transition

This was the first time we see the blue sky

above Delicatessen and we can feel the sun
shining. This scene follows the wipe-out scene.
The two kids represent the future of
Delicatessen which won’t be of cannibalism.

This shot shows the ones behind the

transition of Delicatessen. Both them and the
kids were playing music which shows the new
peaceful aspect of this village. Having them
sitting underneath umbrellas, with the blue
sky, accentuate the presence of the sun.

This shows that Louison gained in reigning the yellowish mood over the reddish one.

1.2) Clapet’s Death

Clapet was shown as the strongest character in the
movie, he had the power and everyone feared him.
He who posts for job opportunities in the Hard Times
newspaper, he who targets and kills at night. And his
power was never-ending even in his death scene
where we see him grabbing a chair and sitting on it
while taking his last breath. And this shows the
continuity in the mise en scene of Clapet’s personage.

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2) Camera Language
2.1) Characters in Close-Ups

Having sex scared screaming scared

Sleeping screaming,scared sleeping afraid of dying

Contradiction: smiling screaming screaming scarring someone

and playing dead

Dying

All the close ups of the characters show them in different emotional situations whether
its sex, horror, anger, scary, death or comic. However, all their facial expressions,
regardless of their emotions, show exaggeration in a comic way, which accentuate the
comedy aspect of the movie. This contradiction between the emotions and the way they
are conveyed creates the effect of black-comedy.

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2.2) Objects in Close-ups

The use of objects in close up is mainly used as a descriptive way of the action or the rhythm of
the action happening. The objects in close ups are used through the whole film in consistency
which creates a coherent effect for the movie. They also show the comic aspect of the movie.

2.3) Parallelism in Rhythm and Editing (bed scenes)

We have two main scenes showing parallelism in the rhythm (editing and sound wise).

From 00:15:24 till 00:17:30 the powerful Clapet control the rhythm of the whole building. He is
having a sexual relation with Plusse, and the bed sound is so loud that everyone could feel and
follow the apogee of their sexual relation. We can see everyone intensifying their action

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according to the sound of the bed. This is also visible through the editing technique which became
faster and rhythmical moving from scene to another in a parallel way showing each character vs.
the sound and the rhythm created. This scene also creates a comic outcome because it
exaggerates the intimate fact of having sex in a funny way.

From 00:37:57 to 00:39:49, this scene shows parallelism which is also created through the bed’s
sound. But this time it’s Louison who’s controlling the rhythm. The rhythm runs smoothly and
the editing shows it in parallel with the dancers performing on TV. Plusse this time is impressed.
We can see the yellowish mood in this scene, opposing to the reddish mood in the previous bed
scene.
As we can see, Jeunet and Caro succeeded in conveying the meaning of their movie through the
mise en scene and the camera language. Actually the consistency used in their style marked their
movie and made it more comprehensible to the eye. The unsaid details were predictable through
a micro-view to the different yet coherent shots. We were able to interpret the relations between
the characters and how they evolved through the colors without having them to tell us which
color represents what. Our eyes learn to analyze the differences in moods and colors. And not to
forget the intellectual use of editing and the use of close ups which make the movie runs in a
smooth way yet its story is so heavy to digest.
Both directors were known for their unique and consistent style. Jeunet claims in one of his
interviews: “I lost confidence in America because I lost so much freedom; that’s the reason I
prefer to make my films in France.” ( as cited in Euro 1) In another place he adds:

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"Aujourd'hui, à Hollywood, le metteur en scène est juste un employé, ce sont les producteurs
exécutifs qui dictent tout" (as cited in Europe 12)

This actually shows how much Freedom is important to Jeunet, and the mise en scene. If it was
not we would not be able to classify all of his movies in the same direction.

And when asked about the origins of Delicatessen’s idea, he replied:

“We wrote City Of Lost Children before Delicatessen, but it was too expensive. So we were
looking for an original idea but cheaper. At the time I was living above a butcher shop and I woke
up every morning with the chung, chung noise of the hachoir, the chopper. That was the
beginning of the idea. And at the time we wanted to put everything we loved into a film, so there
are a lot of references – the pictures of Robert Doisneau (pioneering photojournalist and
contemporary of Henri Cartier-Bresson), the cartoons of Tex Avery, Buster Keaton; everything.
Everything we loved, it’s in the film.” (as cited in Hammer to Nail)
This shows how much one can be influenced by his everyday life and how much this helps in
comprehending the subject between his hands. They talked about the things they loved and
conveyed them in the way they loved, inspired by the animation world. Discussing serious issues
in a comic way makes them digestible to the viewer. They succeeded in combining the two
extremes, horror and comedy with the use of sci-fi, relying on not only the story, but the way
they represent it: through the mise en scene and the camera language.

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References

1Jean-Pierre
Jeunet : le cinéma qu'il aime et… celui qu'il aime moins, Europe 1. Retrieved from:
http://www.europe1.fr/culture/jean-pierre-jeunet-le-cinema-quil-aime-et-celui-quil-aime-
moins-3444602
2Jean-PierreJeunet : "Chaque film est une épreuve mais on aime ça" , Europe 1. Retrieved
from: http://www.europe1.fr/culture/jean-pierre-jeunet-chaque-film-est-une-epreuve-mais-
on-aime-ca-3696947
Breud S., A Chat With Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Retrieved from :
http://www.hammertonail.com/interviews/a-chat-with-jean-pierre-jeunet/

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