TV Guide Magazine

Delicatessen is an ingeniously funny film with a surprisingly sweet romance at its center.

Salon

I didn't need to understand every word to see what a beautiful film this was - each camera shot a carefully composed masterpiece that immerses the viewer in a realm of luxuriant imagination.

Salon by Jenn Shreve

I didn't need to understand every word to see what a beautiful film this was - each camera shot a carefully composed masterpiece that immerses the viewer in a realm of luxuriant imagination.

TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Not Credited)

Delicatessen is an ingeniously funny film with a surprisingly sweet romance at its center.

Variety

Beautifully textured, cleverly scripted and eerily shot (often with a wideangle lens making characters look even weirder), Delicatessan is a zany little film that's a startling and clever debut for co-helmers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

The Hollywood Reporter

The slapstick is classic-level stuff, the kind of domino-effect precision that is lost in most of today's clumsy farces.

The Hollywood Reporter by Duane Byrge

The slapstick is classic-level stuff, the kind of domino-effect precision that is lost in most of today's clumsy farces.

Variety by Staff (Not Credited)

Beautifully textured, cleverly scripted and eerily shot (often with a wideangle lens making characters look even weirder), Delicatessan is a zany little film that's a startling and clever debut for co-helmers Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov

Set in some sort of post-apocalyptic Parisian deli o' the damned, this lunatic's take on the future of man is so delightfully warped that it's impossible to shake it out of your head and go get a decent night's sleep.

Boston Globe by Jay Carr

What keeps the film going, and helps it keep its comic tone, is the constant threat of cataclysm - and the deadpan Buster Keaton charm of the ever-responsive Pinon as he combats the giant Rube Goldberg meat-grinder that the house, in effect, is. [17 Apr 1992]

Chicago Tribune by Clifford Terry

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's "Delicatessen" is an exuberantly wacky, perversely droll black comedy with an ample dose of gentle whimsy-"Eating Raoul" out of "Mr. Hulot's Holiday." [17 Apr 1992]

Empire

This is still a delightfully original picture, poised perfectly between farce and horror.

Empire by Jack Yeovil

This is still a delightfully original picture, poised perfectly between farce and horror.

The New York Times by Janet Maslin

Among the things that deserve mention in this lightweight but sometimes subversively stylish farce are its ingenious credit sequence, its lively editing by Herve Schneid, its use of code names like Artichoke Heart and Cordon Bleu in the guerrilla war that rages underground and its reference to a couple of odd inventions.

Los Angeles Times by Michael Wilmington

The film itself is playful, weird, unpredictable and a bit tasteless. [10 Apr 1992]

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Delicatessen seems overstuffed at times, unable to digest its own surfeit of jokes, tricks, and surprises.

Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum

There are no characters to care about or remember afterward - just a lot of flashy technique involving decor, some glib allegorical flourishes, and the obligatory studied film-school weirdness.