Blog Response: Delicatessen
In this day and age, digital culture is responsible for many social events and interactions. Upon attending this event, one could notice all of the people arriving in groups, as going to the movies with friends is a social phenomenon that has been spurred by advancement in technology. The event was called a “Foovie” where they combine dinner and a movie; a convenient way of bringing the often-paired experiences together into one place. (I personally chose to just watch the movie). In addition to the main event, there was live entertainment before the beginning of the screening, where a musician performed soft music on stage, giving the feeling that you were in a jazz club. The people putting on the movie most likely chose this jazz club approach because setting the mood in that sense was instrumental in how most the viewers would be primed to see the movie. So in this instance, a piece of material culture came in contact with affecting a piece of digital culture.
The genre of Delicatessen, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, is called a black comedy, where the humor presented throughout the movie is viewed as disturbing to most people because of its dark nature. The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic France, focusing on the tenants of an apartment building and their pursuit to make ends meat. The landlord of the apartment, Clapet, who appropriately runs a butcher shop, posts job opportunities in the local paper trying to attract potential tenants. After the mysterious disappearance of the previous tenant, who we later find out is butchered by Clapet and used a meat to be sold to the tenants, a circus clown by the name of Louison applies for the vacancy. It is at this point in the film where there is a twist in the plot, because after the Louison moves in, he becomes entwined in a secret love affair with the Clapet’s daughter, Julie. When Julie realizes that Louison faces imminent death, she goes to the sewers in seek of the underground vegetarian rebels, the Troglodistes, requesting their aid in stopping her father. The Troglodistes agree to help Julie, and upon their return to the apartment, just narrowly help Louison escape from the clutches of Clapet and the apartment tenants. In the mad rush of the escape scene, Clapet inadvertently kills himself with the weapon Louison was using to defend himself. The movie concludes with Julie and Louison listening to music on the roof of a now peaceful apartment.
A common re-occurring theme in most post-apocalyptic films and novels is the practice of cannibalism, as displayed by Clapet and the apartment tenants. Another theme, that I hadn’t mentioned earlier, is the replacement of currency with a commonly available household item. In this case it is grain. In other movies, like Fallout, they utilize bottle caps. A third theme found in this movie that is parallel to other post-apocalyptic movies is the depiction of a lone wanderer, who ultimately brings about good in the face of evil. In this case, Louison is the outside wanderer who thwarts the evil butcher and tenants of the apartment. In The Book of Eli, the main character Eli wanders the wasteland in search of a proper place to put one of the last remaining bibles. After coming to a town, run by the evil mayor, Carnegie, who wants to use the book to control people, he saves the life of one of the enslaved girls. A final theme presented in this movie that is common among post-apocalyptic digital culture are the do-good rebels that live in the sewers. In the movie Mad Max, the rebel forces are the last frontier between the evil bandits and the village people. It can be argued that these themes appear in the film because of antecedent digital cultural influences from movies like Road Warrior, Fallout, Mad Max, and The Book of Eli
The movie Delicatessen successfully presents the re-occurring motifs amongst popular post apocalyptic movies. And by doing so, it attracts groups of friends and family to a social gathering in which can later be shared amongst them as an experience of digital.
No comments:
Post a Comment