"Hello." "My name is Jean-Pierre Jeunet." "I'm going to talk to you about "Delicatessen" all alone   because Marc Caro doesn't like commentaries." "He never listens to them." "But I'm partial to commentaries. lt's like getting the recipe for a dish." "I'll dive into my memory, because we made the film more than 10 years ago." "So it'll be interesting for me to dive into my memories again." "I remember the butcher sharpening his axe." "The background ofthis story was this:" "I used to live above a butcher shop,   and every morning I was woken up by the butcher chopping away." "My fiancée wanted to move very badly and she said to me:" ""l'm sure he's chopping up the resident on the 7th floor."" ""Then it'll be the resident on the 6th floor, and he'll move downwards."" ""We have to move before it's our turn."" "I thought that would be a great idea, to make a film like a closet play." "All the stories I wrote with Caro were too expensive." "We hadn't been able to do "The City of Lost Children"." "This was an affordable story, all taking place in a single building." "That's how "Delicatessen" began." "The building is totally isolated in a sort of no-man's-land   so we didn't need a whole town around it." "That was very practical." "This was shot the first day." "That's never much good." "Nothing's perfect the first days you're shooting." "The actor with the strange eyes is Pascal Benezech." "He's quite a peculiar actor." "A friend oftramps with an unusual past." "He made us wet our pants laughing." "It was an adventure working with him." "It was our first feature film." "I remember the day before we began." "We'd waited 10 years for this ..." "I was driving through Paris, singing." "Finally this story was taking shape." "Finally we were making a film." "It was great. I was thrilled to bits." "The lighting was done by Darius Khondji. lt was his début." "It was the début for many of our technicians who followed us later." "The guy who carries the bin is Olivier Gleyze,   a member ofthe special effects team "Les Versaillés"." "We use them all the time." "In our films there's hardly a take without a special effect." "He's part ofthis group who made these three films." "For "Alien" l didn't have them." "I used an American group." "Dreyfus chopping." "He's not a physical type, action's hard for him." "The title sequences." "I like title sequences that are part ofthe film's imagery   and have a cinematic function." "I did that in "Foutaises" and in "Amélie"   but not in "The City ..." because it was too expensive." "We had two or three ideas, but not enough money to carry them out." "The script was co-written with Gilles Adrien." "Darius Khondji ..." "We've already mentioned his lighting and chemical processes." "Carlos d'Alessio, the musician who died a few years later, unfortunately." "The sound director, he was a débutant too." "No comment ..." "The costumes ..." "The poor costumier had very few funds." "All the stuffwas made out of rags." "Lots of people did the sets." "Jean Rabasse did the sets for "The City ..."." "Hervé Schneid is the only technician who's done all my four films." "My 1st assistant ..." "The director of production." "My faithful producer Claudie Ossard, who deserves a lot of credit." "She spent a whole year fighting with everybody to get the money." "Nobodywanted to produce this film, nobody understood the script." "Finally, it was UCG who made a deal with her,   and that's how the adventure began." "But it was a long, hard struggle." "We called her every morning for one year, and there was no progress." "Dreyfus, who's in the three French films,   and Jacques Mathou, a great actor." "At the back there's Ticky Holgado, Anne-Marie Pisani and Karin Viard." "This was her screen début." "We'd seen her in Chatiliez's film." "There's a funny anecdote about the grain." "They pay with grain." "Claudie Ossard presented the script to a producer." "No names mentioned." "He opened the script and came upon a scene where they pay with grain,   and he said:" ""This film will never be a succes"." "Because they paid with grain." "Here's Dominique Pinon, our old accomplice." "I didn't discover him in "Diva", but in the short film "Découverte"." "Not in the sense of discovering something, but in the cinematic sense." "I always knew I'd make a film with him. I wrote a 52-minute film for him." "It was never made but I wrote it for him." "At the time he didn't know about it." "The building you just saw was a model built by Jean Rabasse." "We couldn't afford to build big sets." "All this was shot in the old Cetac storehouses." "A factory that was no longer in use." ""Nikita" was shot at the same place." "It was wonderful. lt was summer, the weather was fine,   and this entire mini-town was at our disposal." "We used the big halls as studios, and the streets." "We just added the shop front, but the rest ofthe set was there already." "It was a real little town." "We quickly came upon the title." "I told Caro the outline ofthe story   and he said:" ""l've got the title:" "Delicatessen."" "He'd wanted to use it for a long time." "Here's Les Versaillés at work." "The story ofthe match is typical." "You rehearse it 50 times, but once the camera's rolling, it doesn't work." "The match refused to split in two, and we shot it 30 times." "Special effects are always like that." "I must have made a mistake, then." "You can hear the train." "Caro and I adore the sound oftrains far away ... lt's our love for the atmosphere of Doisneau/Prevert." "Prevert was a deliberate reference for this film." "He never saw it with us,   but he saw it later and sent me a kind postcard I still have." "He said   that ifthe owner ofthe cinema had known how much he liked the film ,  he'd have made him pay ten times as much for his seat." "He says: "Now the hardest thing for you will be to keep it simple."" "You don't look right for the job." "You havn't got the right build ..." "We'd seen Jean-Claude Dreyfus as the boss ofthe troglodytes." "It was very hard for us the find the butcher." "The casting took over a year." "I thought he'd be a great butcher." "We've established a golden rule that I always follow   of doing test shots of all the actors." "I think you can see this in the DVD." "I've kept everything. I always do." "So you can see the test shots with Julie Clapet and Dominique Pinon." "There's a funny story about this staircase." "We found it at Le Valois." "It was perfect. lt was a bit tricky, because we were going to flood it." "It was a derelict building ready for demoliton." "The mayor of Le Valois, whose name I can't remember,   decided at the last moment, one week before we started shooting,   that they wanted 100,000 francs." "So we built it at the studio." "We built two and a halffloors and the rest was a trompe l'oeil" "So there was much less pressure on us." "At the end we built an enormous cistern to flood the staircase." "But the staircase we found at Le Valois was our model." "Maybe you can see our shots from the Le Valois staircase in the DVD   with Darius Khondji, Caro and my assistant." "Dominique Zardi was a real character in 50's and 60's films." " Does your hair grow out again?" " Well, no." "This is, untypically, post-synchronised." "I hate post-synchronisation." "All directors hate it." "This is a typical early shot." "The picture is disagreeable,   the edge is too near Dominique's eyes, the lighting is ugly ..." "Nobody's at home in the film yet." "They're still looking for themselves." "I'd love to do those first weeks over." "Every time we make a film, we think the first takes go better." "But no." "They still suck." "It's hard to remember now who had which idea,   but I know that the monkey ..." "The clown played by Dominique and the little monkey was Caro's own idea." "The layout ofthis building is difficult to understand." "Few people understand that the water comes from old Potin's flat,   where he lives with the snails and the frogs." "Understandably, everybody thinks he lives in the cellar." "But he lives just above them and that's why the water's dripping down." "This isn't very explicit in the film." "But the Japanese understood it." "They reconstructed a complete layout ofthe building." "He's skinny." "This is a beautiful set, created by Aline Bonetto." "She also did the sets for "The City of Lost Children" and "Amélie"." "I'd like to tell the story of how we first met Dreyfus." "I went to see him in a play in Paris." "He did something extraordinary on stage." "They were two actors,   and something clearly wasn't going right, there was a problem." "They had an argument on stage, and one ofthem slapped the other." "The audience felt very uncomfortable." "10 minutes later the play finished and it was clear they'd just been acting." "Dreyfus loves doing that kind ofthing." "This is the scene with the bubble." "I remember it very well." "We met this very talented boy who did one-man shows, Gustave Parking." "He made performances in the street and had this incredible bubble act." "He taught Dominique Pinon how to make bubbles,   how to smoke a cigarette inside it and put one bubble inside another etc." "The day we shot it, it was very hot on the staircase because ofthe lights." "There were hundreds of kilowatts." "It got too hot to make bubbles." "We had to get these huge fans and cool down the staircase   for hours with the lights turned off." "When the temperature was right,   we shot the whole scene in half an hour." "The bubble was supposed to stay in the frame." "Dominique would burst it with his fag and the smoke would rise again." "It was beautiful, but we didn't manage." "When we rehearsed, we always got it right, of course ..." "Marie Laure Dougnac played the part ofJulie Clapet wonderfully." "Many people were convinced she was really myopic." "She has true talent." "This was the scene which was used for the trailer." "This scence has been pirated so often for commercials." "Ifwe'd sued them all, we could've lived off it for ten years." "The Americans used it for Coca-Cola, among others." "They nicked it for a good dozen commercials." "Directly inspired by Buster Keaton." "Inspirations are always fun." "But sometimes we nick scenes without knowing it." "That's very unpleasant afterwards." "In the scene at the end with the bathroom that is emptied ofwater,   we were convinced we'd found an original idea. lt was Caro's idea." "Years later, I saw a Laurel  Hardy film with exactly the same idea." "Maybe Caro saw it as a boy and forgot about it." "These things happen." "Don't think we didn't do all the takes for this scene in one go,   because there are different sets and different actors." "Sometimes we're on the stairs, sometimes in Tapioca's flat etc.,   so to do this scene we had to storyboard and prepare it carefully." "The rhythm of each take was timed." "We used a metronome to give them the same rhythm." "It was extremely structured." "Otherwise it'd be impossible." "All the shots ofthe springs were done in one go." "The perch man was on the bed because he had a good sense oftempo." "Mixing it was hell." "We did it twice." "First time for the trailer   and then we remixed it." "To decide what to put in the foreground and the background,   the sound effects or the music, made the mixing extremely complicated." "The sound effects were made by Jerôme Thiault   and Marc Caro who spent a lot oftime on the post production   with the electronic machines that appeared in those years." "The sampler and all that, which was quite new at the time." "Caro did the post production while I edited the film with Harvé Schneid." "Finished?" "Then get down." "There's the bulb on the 2nd floor." "We were innovative as far as sound goes." "The sound engineer, Vincent Arnardi, who's done all our films ... lt wasn't easy for him." "In France we had no sound culture." "It was difficult to find the base for certain sounds, e.g. a simple gunshot." "Today the French do that as well as the Americans, but not back then." "To get the right sound, we had to work on it for a week." "A gunshot is a mixture offive or six different sounds." "It was hard to get a sound in the American fashion." "The staircase in trompe l'oeil The 2 1/2 floors look like five." "The postman is Chick Ortega." "He's from Nancy like me." "Wim Wenders used him a lot." " You have 20 seconds to disperse!" " lt's obvious you've no kids to feed." "Chick's past is quite exceptional." "He used to be the manager of Johnny Halliday and Claude François." "He's not from a film environment." "But he is a born actor." "He never took any acting classes,   but it's in his blood." "His technique is wonderful." "He's a great actor." " He's a friend." " A friend?" ""A friend"." "That line used to crack me and Caro up,   but I don't think it made anyone else laugh." "Sometimes a small sequence makes us laugh, but nobody else laughs." "That's all right." "See you, Julie." "All this in our staircase set went well." " Here." "For the advert." " As you wish." "He looks funny, the new guy." "It was in this film I started using short focal distances." "It adds character to the persons." "It accentuates their physiognomy." "Most ofthis lies in the casting,   but the short focal distance contributes   to making the characters more expressive." "And of course the effect is greater when we see the whole set." "In this take you can see the ceilings." "Personally, I loathe long focal distances. it's too facile." "It's a certain style that makes all American film look the same   in their non-style of using long focal distances." "We'll get them!" "The special effects team did this directly:" "He spits and breaks the glass." "Three cheers for the synchronisation." "Our poor postman had difficulties handling his motorbike." "That kind ofthing really kills you." "He'd never ridden a motorbike before." "But you don't get three extra weeks to teach an actor technical skills." " He takes his time just to annoy me." " He succeeded." "So what's he waiting for?" "This is the gag with the condom patched up with bicycle rubber." "It doesn't make me laugh quite so much any more." "I'd do it more subtly now, specially regarding the sound." "It lacks a bit offinesse." "He puts it in the water, it doesn't burst ... I'd make the sound more subtle today." "Behind him there's a TV screen." "All the images on the screen have to do with food." "You can see a cheese platter turning around." "They're obsessed with food,   with the lack offood, so all the images revolve around it." "This is Potin's flat." "He's played by Howard Vernon,   a mythical actor from the 50's and 60's, who's dead now." "He was very cooperative." "A man his age, covered in snails and frogs ..." "The poor frogs." "As the Americans say:" ""No animal was harmed in this film."" "We put them out in a pond afterwards." "They must have some stories to tell." "But it wasn't much fun for them." "The paint came offthe walls   and I don't think they have fond memories ofthis film." "Every man for himself and God for us all." "Ajournalist from Nancy who sees all our films   found the image ofthe snail shells very disturbing." "It made her think of death camps." "It haunted her." "Here we have the famous tea-scene." "Well, perhaps not famous." "Anyway, the tea scene." "You can see the trials of it on the DVD." "We used it to cast the part ofJulie Clapet." "We rehearsed it in this set." "It wasn't quite finished at the time." "It was lots ofwork." "We have so much material to choose from." "Ifyou watch the trial runs, you can see it was meticulously rehearsed." "I tried out something in this film which worked really well:" "I reject the rehearsed version at the last moment,   but only tell one ofthe actors." "So the other one is surprised." "This is very exciting for the actors, who have to semi-improvise." "But they've rehearsed it carefully,   so they're able to play the scene to the end, but they have to improvise." "We'd rehearsed this scene for weeks   with Marie Laure Dougnac and Dominique Pinon." "But at the last moment I told Dominique to take her place,   so she'd have to improvise." "You'll see what happens." "He offers her flowers, that's new." "That's the first little surprise." "Her little awkward gestures are improvised, she's truly surprised." "This situation has been rehearsed, everything's fine." "Dominique is supposed to sit here, but what happens?" ""Did you paint that?" She doesn't know what to do." ""lt's nothing special." He takes her place, look. "No, no," she says." "She's embarrassed." "All the rehearsals are suddenly turned upside-down." "All the movements are reversed, so she feels very awkward." "She's completely lost." "She's not acting, she really is!" "The actors and the crew sensed it when I did this kind ofthing   and gathered around the camera." "Discreetly, of course." "I hope you don't find me too forward?" "Not at all." "Why?" "A young girl inviting you home like this." "Marie Laure has a talent for playing a short-sighted person." "Thank me?" "What for?" "You saved my parcel on the staircase." "I was very touched." "It's only natural ..." "Camera operator Darius Khondji was one ofthe first to try out a method   invented by Bertolucci's camera operator,   whose name I'll remember shortly ..." "He invented a process we call NR." "It's a complicated chemical process." "Some film tapes are left out and others accentuated." "It accentuates contrasts and tones down colours." "So the photography has a very distinct character." "It was still in an experimental stage." "It turned out somewhat monochrome,   but the film had a very particular character, except in the USA,   where the Americans didn't process the copies and it was very ugly." "Well, maybe not ugly, but a lot less interesting." "Here we have Silvie Laguna." "I saw her in an advertisement, and she just made me crack up." "The role of Mme lnterligator fits her like a glove." "She's wonderful at playing a nervous type,   someone on the edge of hysteria." "She's perfect for it." "She made us laugh so much." "More food commercials." "I have no choice." "Here." "Tomorrow at 11." "Ring the doorbell." "Move?" "Why?" "I just got here." "The flats are insanitary." "The walls are crumbling." "Maybe you don't like me?" "You talk as ifyou want me to leave." "This is the kind of cartoonish gag we're very fond of." "Now they're going to knock their heads together." "They had to do it for real." "We tried it out,   and ifthey faked it, it was too obvious." "So they knocked their heads together and Marie Laure's bump wasn't a fake." "I like this little scene where Dominique blows on her forehead." "To me, it's a precursor ofthe kissing scene in "Amélie",   when Nino and Amélie kiss in a very long and very special way,   that makes all movie theatres fall absolutely silent." "I really like this little moment." "In a script, there's always these little lines you write and forget." "Then you make the film and ..." ""l break things, so I have two of everything," and she gets a new vase." "We laughed when we wrote it, but forgot all about it." "Do you play the cello?" "I also play an instrument." "When we showed the film the first time, that line made everybody laugh." "We'd forgotten this line was funny." "It's strange how we get used to the humour we invent   and then rediscover it one year later." "This was Marc Caro's idea." "Playing the saw." "The two actors had to learn how to play these instruments." "Of course we don't hear them play, but to get the movements right,   they had to learn how to play." "In "The Making Of' you can see how." "They played completely out oftune." "It was awful." "But they got the movements right." "As the film was planned one year ahead, " " Marie Laure Dougnac had time to learn Carlos d'Alessios music." "So she rehearsed it for almost one year on the cello in her flat." "Some painters were redecorating the courtyard where she lived." "So they heard the theme from the film every day." "One morning she heard them whistling the film's theme   one year before it was released." "That's really something." "Do you know that tune?" "It was his favourite." "There, a little scene   with the couple playing "Duet for Saw and Cello" by Carlos d'Alessio." "He was Marguerite Duras' composer." "He did the "Indian Song"." "He wrote a marvellous piece I used for my short film "Foutaises"." "It was very moving." "Just right." "I heard it in concert once. ln Tokyo." "No snobbery intended." "We went there to promote the film, and d'Alessio gave a concert   with Michael Newman, the English composer." "Jean Rabasse's model ..." "Have you noticed how light the nights are?" "It's always like that in the era ofVirgo." "Mlle Plusse." "We like these weird names." "We find them in catalogues from the thirties and forties." "Monsieur Potin, Mademoiselle Plusse,   the Kube Brothers, the Tapioca family." "I've made a production company called Tapioca Film." "It's a tribute to General Tapioca, the "Tintin" character." "It's be such a pity to lose these lovely hams." "And these little piglets." "I always direct the takes. I don't shoot them, Darius Khondji did that,   but I always direct them." "I have a deep need to do the directing." "I never leave that to anyone else." "It's just like you said." "The wind is changing." "It's going to pour down." "You can't see your own films without reciting the words. lt's unbearable." "I don't know if I'm still able to recite all of "Delicatessen",   but it's quite possible." "I don't know if I have the right to say this, but ..." "The caster, Pierre-Jacques Benichau, is another faithful friend." "He did the three films." "Not counting "Alien", of course." "The crew that followed me on "Alien" were Hervé Schneid,   my scripter Aruna Villiers, Pitof, who did the special effects, " " Dominique Pinon, the actor ...." "And an assistant." "SOPORlFlC HERBAL TEA" "And Darius Khondji, the camera operator who did the three films." "I like this shot where she takes off his very long clown's shoes   and puts them next to her tiny feet." "I like that image." "The monkey's costume was made by Valérie Pozzo di Borgo." "I have it at home. I always keep one or two souvenirs from each film." "From "The City ..." l kept the Styx boat, which is 1,50 metres long." "From "Alien" l had an alien sent over from Hollywood in a box." "When it arrived, I told the delivery man he was in for a surprise." "He opened the box and saw one ofthe alien's arms and said:" ""Oh, an alien," as if he delivered them every day." ""Delicatessen" was one ofthe first French films that got sold worldwide." "It's wonderful to have one's film shown on all continents   to people of all races, in all countries." "People react exactly the same way to it." "They are moved at the same time, laugh and applaud at the same time." "The nightmare, which today might be made with sophisticated techniques   was simply made with a pliable mirror." "We shook it and got these deformed images." "It was an extremely simple method." "Nightmares are a film cliché, but this is a double nightmare." "One nightmare inside another." "We think she's woken up,   but she's in a new nightmare." "I love these scenes with doors that open up." "They're in all my films." "Sometimes one does these things without realizing it." "You have a vague feeling you've seen it somewhere before." "It's usually the editor who says:" ""You're repeating yourself a bit."" "This is a moment that my producer Claudie Ossard didn't like." "It's the most scary bit." "In fact, there's no real violence in my films." "Fights, pursuits and action sequences." "It's not a bad thing." "This is our favourite scene." "The most noted sequence." "It's hard to define the magic ofthis scene." "But the music helped us a lot." "The little video,   which we found on a TV channel and bought for a pittance,   is one ofthose period videos with actors who play badly, move badly,   directed by debutants, if not by their assistants ..." "What a treat to watch." "Anyway, it gave the rhythm and the idea for this scene." "It was one ofthe two places where the audience always applauded." "The other one was Mme lnterligator's failed suicide at the end." "I'm really proud of it." "We spent a whole day shooting it." "Dominique found the rhythm difficult, and he's a great technician." "The editing was very complicated." "You had to hitjust the right chord." "It was hell." "Karin's just perfect in this scene." "Karin does auteurfilms now, more intellectual things,   and doesn't refer much to "Delicatessen"." "Maybe she's not too proud of it today." "But she was brilliant." "It's the second spring." "A great moment." "Here's Mme lnterligator." "This extract was in a Bernard Pivot show,   where Bertrand Tavernier and I were guests." "Pivot asked me:" ""But do you like Tavernier's films?" l was petrified. I'd never seen any." "A terrible moment." "I think Tavernier's still angry at me." "This is interesting:" "The voice that we hear." "In fact, it's Jacques Mathou's voice." "In the first mix we were in Dolby and in stereo." "Ifyou heard it in stereo, it sounded as ifthe voice was in her head." "Ifwe played it in mono, it sounded as ifthe voice came from the tap." "So the use of stereo changed the story completely." "A real dilemma." "We knew that sometimes the film would be in mono, sometimes stereo." "Too bad for those who don't have stereo." "I always loved these mechanical contraptions,   where one thing leads to another." "I think it comes from a serial story I loved as a kid: "Mission Impossible"." "They invented these incredible systems to do quite simple things." "Later I found out there was an American cartoonist, Rob Goldberg,   who used this gimmick in his cartoons. I didn't know it then." "Mme lnterligator in all her splendour." "A wonderful actress." "And Caro really perfected her look." "With that hairdo and those glasses, it's really something ..." "Our collaboration was in fact quite simple." "Caro supervised the whole look, colours, costumes, hair, make-up." "He designed the whole image with a mania that's even worse than mine." "I put more work into directing, writing the script, casting etc." "This flat was built in the studio." "At the storehouses, that is." "The window sill is in fact at ground level, only 50 cms from the ground." "In the next shot ... this one,   l spent weeks, no, years, creating that sensation of emptiness,   to give the impression that the flat was on the second floor,   when in fact it was on the ground." "Try to imagine the ground just below the window. lt's completely abstract." "Now I see itjust like any other spectator, two floors up." "For years I could only see it the way we'd shot it." "A director needs at least six months to see his film as the audience does." "But it takes a few years before he feels it the way they do." "At first you're too caught up in the production, in the details." "You just see small mistakes, little things you regret." "It takes time to get it into perspective." "This is perhaps our co-writer Gilles Adrien's most successful scene." "The bullshit detector." "He wrote it right after a meeting with us." "Sometimes last-minute inspirations really pay off." "Talk bullshit." "Come on." "We should've put it into production." "We'd have made a fortune." "Life is beautiful." "What a load of bullshit, your detector." "Listen, Tapioca, ifyou won't fix me up, I have to find a solution, fast." "Ifyou keep stalling, my fuses will blow." "Idioms are always difficult when a film is sold all over the world." "They give translation problems." "A film loses 20 º/o of its interest with this kind of intranslatable dialogue." " l have many mouths to fill!" " Grandma's, for example." "Yes." "Why did you mention her?" "The film won the 1st prize at the Tokyo Film Festival." "That was a great surprise." "There were two cameras on us." "We didn't expect to win." "First they said it in Japanese and we didn't understand." "Then in broken English. lt was some time before we realized we'd won." "I remember Alan Parker clapping like a seal with his hands in the air." "It was one ofthe best prizes we won." "Later the film won four Césars." "Best script, best début,   and I think best sets and editing." "We got 9, or was it 11 nominations." "Grain seems important to me." "Amélie loves dipping her hands into it." "Here's the butcher's cellar, full of grain." "Kreka was also on the list of set producers." "He also did Emir Kusturica's sets." "The fourth one was Jean-Philippe Carp." "So it was a big team." "The sets were made with skill and imagination, on a small budget." "The film was made on 18 million from the beginning, and ended on 24." "I talked about improvisations before." "This one was a bit nasty." "I felt this scene was a bit weak, so I told Dreyfus to slap her for real." "So in this close-up, the tears you can see in Marie Laure's eyes are real." "It humiliated her." "She thought I did it because she couldn't play the scene." "And in the other shots she's acting, of course." "But in the close-up all the emotions are real,   and I remember that the whole crew had tears in their eyes just like her." "The result is better than if she was acting." "It's hard to make tears come into one's eyes in the middle of a take." "I find them magic, the lights that shine   in the windows of a house at night." "It comes from an illustration I saw as a child, from "Thumbelina"   by Gustave Doré." "Today, when I go home at night there's a big apartment building   with a very Parisian facade and when there's a light on,   l always think of "Thumbelina" and "Delicatessen"." "Look to the right!" "There's a vague shadow on the ground. lt's a pipe for cooling water." "It was forgotten there by our props assistant, who watered the ground." "We couldn't see it because ofthe fog." "You can just see it very dimly." "Details like that make Marc Caro sick and quite ready to give up the film   as a total flop because there's a bit of pipe showing at the bottom." "Maybe that's why he wouldn't do the commentary." "He remembered the pipe." "Now we're at that fabulous location, the water reservoir at Saint-Fargeau." "An incredible location. lt exists." "We got access to it quite clandestinely to discover it,   and afterwards we applied for an official permission." "So we knew it already when we got the official tour of it." "We followed the guide who wasn't at all familiar with the place." "We pretended to discover the places:" ""Perhaps we could go this way?"" ""No, there's nothing there," he'd say." ""Yes, let's try."" "The week before we'd found the locations we liked best." "It was hard to get the permission." "Drinking water reservoirs are more or less classified secrets   because someone ..." "I shouldn't say this ... could poison the water   and poison one quarter ofthe inhabitants of Paris." "But as a location for filming they're quite marvellous." "The open reservoirs we see later aren't drinking water,   it's a natural source that feeds the fountains of Paris." "The drinking water reservoirs are kept in total darkness to avoid algae." "There are stalactites formed by rain water." "The constructions, built under Napoleon Iii, are totally abstract,   because you're in the dark and they form a mirror phenomeon." "You can't see where the bottom is, what's reflection, shadow or light." "It's fabulous." "There were so many beautiful shots to do, we just couldn't leave." "This might seem a bit unhealthy, but it's not at all a disgusting place." "It's a humid and warm place, but with a very healthy atmosphere." "Earlier on, we'd visited the sewers under the Boulevard Sebastopol,   and that was a real nightmare." "You die ifyou fall in, the crew had to get vaccinated,   there were aggressive rats and a risk of explosions and fast flooding." "So we decided against the sewers." "This is the kind of scene   that made us scream with laughter when we shot it,   but never made the audience laugh." "I think Dreyfus is funny, but nobody laughed." "Not out loud, anyway." "The spider is interesting ifwe want to compare Hollywood with Paris." "Our props manager bought a spider, put it on the wall and that was it." "It cost the price ofthe spider." "No, I think he found it in the attic." "In Hollywood there was a spider too, which Ron Pearlman shot dead." "They brought in the insect specialist who showed me 100 different spiders." "This guy came for three days at 105,000 francs a day." "That's why Hollywood films are expensive." "We wanted to kill the spider, but that was out ofthe question." "We had to find a spider that had died of natural causes." "Maybe one ofthem had a heart attack, we certainly didn't kill it." "The appearance ofthe troglodytes ..." "When we did the storyboard, I spent two days getting the idea for it." "Bizarrely, I was inspired by the first "Alien"-film." "At the end, there's an interior shot ofthe small vessel." "Suddenly, it moves and we realize it's there although we didn't see it." "I did the same thing with the troglodytes who suddenly appear." "It was inspired by "Alien"." "Doubtlessly a premonition." "Patrick Paroux, the leader ofthe troglodytes ... ln "Amélie" he was the prompter who gave the shy people their lines." "We've also got Dominique Betenfeld who's in "The City of Lost Children."" "Maurice Lamy and Marc Caro himself ..." "Our brother Matt's shirt." "I think you'll see Marc Caro in a minute." "To you, we're just game." " Meat eater." " Not me, I swear!" "The costumes are not a happy memory." "To get that brilliance   we oiled them with table oil before each take." "You had to take care not to rub against them. lt was a nightmare." "Pameau, tell this calamity in skirts to behave." "There's at least one month's harvest there ..." "The grain again ..." "Corn!" "There's lots of it at the house." "30 big sacks in my father's cellar." "Our set producer fell in the water all the same, but he survived." "Can I help you, miss?" "We haven't talked about Jean-François Perrier, who is an amazing actor." "He was a male nurse for the Red Cross at Lourdes." "He has an incredible past." "He was discovered in the play "Le Bal"." "Scola made it into a film,   and that's where we discovered Perrier, who is quite marvellous." "Hi, Julie." "This was the first photo we gave to the press from "Delicatessen"." "Are you all right?" "Sorry." "I'm just preparing a new act." "There was a very special atmosphere when we did this film." "Everyone felt   that we were doing something quite new and different in French film." "People tell me that "Delicatessen" opened a door,   permitting other "different" films to be made. I don't know if it's true." "But if it is, I'm very pleased." "If it was hard to make, it's because we never made any compromises." "We never accepted a casting that wasn't ours,   we never accepted making a film that we didn't feel for." "We waited 10 years to make a full-length film but didn't regret it." "I like the black humour in this scene:" ""l'd have liked to say goodbye to her."" ""That's what we're going to do." Oh, horror!" "Mathou taking a piece of Dreyfus' leg to him." "He's going to offer him a piece, but the other one isn't hungry." "Going out at night like that ..." "What got into you?" "We got exceptional reviews for this film." "It was the surprise effect." "In France, when you surprise people, you get credit for it,   and you're indulged more than everyone else." "The second film is always harder, but we were very lucky with this one." "I found this scene again in a film by Jacques Odiard,   and I say this with no malice because I love Odiard's films." "He reproduced this scene, undoubtedly without realizing it." "I like finding these little inspirations and references." " Sometimes, it's impossible." " Nobody is entirely evil." "It's the circumstances." "People make mistakes." "This is a model shot made by motion control,   a computer operated camera." "Back then it was the latest thing in optics." "You can see that's it's very approximate." "With this film we started using video trick films." "It wasn't digital, of course, and the quality was bad,   but Dubois and Pitof started using it for this film." "It was quite innovative." "Just look at Caro and Maurice Lamy." "A pretty cartoonish couple." "We were criticised for it:" "The troglodyte scenes look more like a cartoon than the rest ofthe film." "Today I'd give them a stronger human identity   and make them more realistic." "It's true they are a bit cartoon-like and cut us off a bit from the story." "This is the water reservoir." "A mind-blowing location." "Mme lnterligator's second failed suicide." "I love thinking up this kind of contraption." "It probably comes from my background in film animation,   where principles like this are used." "I started as an animator and did two short animated films,   "L'Évasion" and "Le Ménage"." "Caro did the puppets' heads." "A bit like Tim Morton, only much less talented." "But it's sort ofthe same process." "Maybe that's where our desire to do everything ourselves comes from." "In animation you're the all-round artisan,   controlling even the characters' movements." "No, not Daddy's golf clubs!" "Everyone always heard this as." ""Pas les silly pommes de terre!"" "The facade was hard to shoot, since we'd only built two floors." "There were only 10 centimetres above the frame." "The rest was sky." "We always enjoy creating all the props." "The photo album, the newspapers etc." "We adore making things like that and do it with great care." "I like this little gag." "Maurice Lamy is going to taste the grain." "With his thumb he indicates that:" ""No, it's not good"." ""Yes, you fool, it's great!"" " Danger, don't know what it is." " Courage is our business." "Once, I saw the film and there were two guys next to me who hated it." "They were there by accident." "When they saw this scene they said:" ""They stole that from the Americans!" Sure we did." "That's the reference." "I must have lost two kilos listening to them tear the film apart." "The rest ofthe theatre laughed, but I could only hear their comments." "As the film advanced they seemed to get into it, so I got my hopes up." "But no: "This film sucks!" l was desperate." "I remember a funny episode when we shot this scene   with the troglodytes crawling up, passing all the toilets on their way." "The big boss at UGC, Alain Sussfeld, visited the set." "He was pretty dismayed and said to us: "Count yourselves lucky"." "A few months later the film was released and we were in Cannes,   and I enjoyed saying to him:" ""Count yourself lucky."" " Now what's wrong, Aurore?" " George ... I had great discussions with Khondji   about the lighting in the rubbish chute." "He thought it was beautiful and I thought it was absurd." "We could discuss that kind of detail for hours." "Caro and I often had conflicts about the narrative versus the aestheticism." "Caro often won the duels." "This scene is directly inspired by Clouzot's film "Le Corbeau",   where Susy Delair gets sick." "Or maybe I'm mixing things up, but there was a cupping-scene." "Jean-Claude Dreyfus hated it and he suffered." "Always video clips with cakes and food ..." "The wretchedly bad kind of clips I talked about." "A complete disaster." "Wonderful." "Do you want me to talk to her?" "She's only thinking about this Louison ..." "All the scenes were rehearsed." "He's on telly tonight." "If I were you, I'd go and tell him." "I'm sure he doesn't even know." "I like Karin's little "oh" followed by the mooh. lt's like music." "Our recordist is Jean-Pierre Lelong." "He's an extraordinary fellow." "He makes the sounds directly, synchronised with the image." "He's the kind of artist they don't make any more." "It's quite extraordinary to watch him at work." "He's done all my films." "I bitterly regret he wasn't in the USA,   because the American recordists are much less skillful." "Another important person was the sound editor, Gérard Hardy,   who also did "The City ..." and "Amélie"." "He edits in all the background noises, scratching,   birdsong, cars in the distance,   trains, all the things that make the film come alive." "The audience doesn't see it at first, but Dominique's got a third leg." "We nicked it from an American circus act." "It's a shameless theft." "Dominique started out shooting this scene and he was pretty nervous." "Starting out is never easy and once this shot was done, he felt better." "He'd faced it." "I always put my foot in it." " lt's true." "He's got clown's shoes." " Mission complete." "These two guys really are cartoonish." "It's not the the thing we did best." "These are the first video recordings." "The quality is not the best." "I don't know ifyou can see it on a TV, but on the big screen you could." "And the mosquito ..." "The technique we used was revolutionary at the time." "Poor Howard Vernon, the things we made him do ..." "These are real clown's props   that we discovered via the clowns who came   to play the bits of music and to practise the acts with Dominique." "We played Carlos d'Alessio's music on those little metal plates." "Quiet!" "I remember my producer Claudie Ossard visiting us at the reservoir   in her Chanel suit and stiletto heels." "It was quite surrealistic to see her among the oily troglodytes." "But Claudie feels comfortable anywhere and with anyone." "She has true artistic sincerity and has always supported us." "At the same time she's classy enough to find money in financial circles   among people who are completely different from us." "This was the first time I made a little improvisation." "It's not the best scene, but look ..." "that movement." "I had Dominque do it without telling Marie Laure." "Look what happens ..." "She's holding back a laugh." "It gives that little extra something   that made me want to continue improvising." "Aurore, you should see this." "It's impressive." "Mme lnterligator's last and most complicated, sophisticated suicide." "The shotgun directed at her." "The pills in her hand ..." "The rope around her neck, the gas turned on and a thing for lighting it." "She's foreseen everything." "The plaque for those who died for their country   bears the names of all the set production assistants." " l'm wearing contact lenses." " Oh." "I think the voice you can hear is the perch man's, Laurent Zelig." "A great name. I think "Zelig" is my favourite Woody Allen film." "You never told me!" "It's not the best scene." "The actors agreed with us about that." "There are too many intentions and also the surprise ... lt's best to have just one idea for each scene." "Mixing ideas never works out well." "This is the most amazing set ofthe whole film." "The roofwas built in an empty lot, so we could shoot at night   without having any obstacles behind it." "In "The Making Of' you can see how strange it is to see the roof   on the ground, as ifthe building had been swallowed up by the earth." "A bit like Cédric Klapisch did in "Peut-être"." "It was quite magical to see the roof at night all lit up   as if it had come back out ofthe earth." "How can Mlle Plusse see something on the roof reflected in the window?" "I never understood it, but it was the only way   we could have her see the butcher on the roof bending the antenna." "Louison!" "Oily troglodytes wriggling in the ducts,   filmed horizontally, of course." "Here we use an old-fashioned trick:" "a semi-transparent lens   that gives us the gun in close-up and the woman in the background." "Back then it took hours to arrange." "Now it's so easy to do it digitally." "But in those days this was the easiest way." "Come, come ..." "Look at the moon. lt's the real moon." "Today it's so easy to trick it." "We'd make it larger and more beautiful." "But that's the real moon." " Come back!" " l can't hear you!" "As I said before, Dreyfus, who's going to fight with Pinon,   isn't really a physical actor." "The meat axe is trembling a bit, because it's not a real axe." "As far as action goes, it's not the most succesful sequence ever ..." "But Dreyfus enjoyed doing it, it's not something he does every day." "The film made him ..." "Well, he wasn't discovered,   but it contributed to his celebrity." "He'd have made it without "Delicatessen" too, but it helped." "Pinon is a magnificent actor, but in the category ofJohn Turturro   and they're not recognized, in France for what they're worth." "I don't know why, but it's sad, because he's a fantastic actor   who deserves to get much more work." "This is another scene which was stolen outrageously   by a British director of commercials called Tarsem." "He pretends to be a fan but is a thief who steals left, right and centre." "Not only did he plagiarise "Foutaises" quite shamelessly,   but also copied this passage for a commercial." "Adidas l think it was." "Both regarding colour, image and idea." "Mme lnterligator's failed suicide." "The sounds were not added in the editing as we'd do today,   but done directly by Jean-Pierre Lelong." "Exactly there the audiences applauded for the second time." "Everywhere." "At the exact same place." "Here we have one of my great regrets:" "He pushes the glass." "We'd made a wonderful sound ofthe rubber against the glass." "And we forgot to put it in." "Vincent Arnardi forgot it. I hate him for it!" "I can't see it without making the sound. I miss it too much." "But all right, it doesn't make the film a total flop." "Stop!" "Stop!" "In the films Karin does now, she doesn't get trapped in carpets." "How silly!" "Punching the camera is always efficient." ""l fell," she says." " l got on the chair and I fell." " Yes, Aurore." "I got this idea for the explosion,   because a real explosion was complicated and expensive." "We'd imagined the whole set with the roofs trembling." "A monstrous task." "I got this idea when I saw "Salaire de la Peur" where a lorry blows up   and there's a great shot, 100 times better than what we did here." "I've always been jealous ofthis in Clouzot's films." "You see a person rolling a cigarette and he's put the tobacco on the paper." "Suddenly the tobacco is blown offthe paper." "3 seconds later we hear the explosion and know the lorry's blown up." "The visual idea is so beautiful, and it inspired us." "That's why we hear the sound ofthe explosion with a delay." "This little idea saved us from building an enormous set." "We made this trick on video, not digitally, just on tape." "The knife was shot separately against a blue background and put in later." "At the time it was very complicated to do these things." "Julie!" "What are you doing here?" "Wash your face right now and go home!" "Right now!" "Remove that lipstick!" "And you, just wait!" "I'm coming!" "Obviously, we had to work on Jean-Claude's stunt for several hours." "And when the window broke ..." "Our budget was so tight, we had two windows." "They're fake, of course." "They're made of a kind of resin, are very fragile and cost a packet." "We'd broken one, so we only had one left." "The shot had to be a one-off." " What about the others?" " Here they are." "Did it work out?" "They were ready for picking." "And we're all here!" "Shit!" "It's not my favourite scene." " What is this?" " Shit, shit!" "Pank, is this loot we were supposed to bring?" "It gets better." "This is quite funny." " Pank, explain this." " lsn't this what we agreed on?" "Place des Albumines." "Name:" "Louison." "Bad faith can be really funny." "I also wrote "Sex:" "Male." "Wears clown's shoes"." " Let's check it." " Sex:" "Male." "Sex:" "Male!" " Well?" " Look at the packet. ls this a male?" "That's not my problem." "The Louison mission was the packet." "Pank!" "Louison ..." "The packet, is it a male, yes or no?" "We'll have to check." "A film director can be in extremely bad faith, I'll tell you." "Sorry, Louison, it's strictly professional." "Are you all mad?" "I've had it with ... I used this shot ofthe feet in "Alien", too,  and in I'm sure you can find it in "The City ..."." "I love filming feet." "This is one ofthe few occasions where a long focal view works well." "Cordon Bleu to Flying Onion." "Artichoke Heart in immediate danger." "The actors enjoyed these silly things." "It's like being a child playing cops and robbers again." "It's simple:" "The actors are playing in the sense of having fun." "Everybody knows it's a game." "There's no intellectual pretense." "It's a complete joy for all film makers." "Milan, Fox, Tourneur ..." "Get the others, hurry up." "What about me?" "Hey!" "Don't forget me!" "It's Dominique Betenfeld." "He's also in "The City ..." and in "Amélie"." "In "Amélie", he's the neighbour   whom Amélie drives mad by unplugging his antenna during a football match." "Acting, what a wonderful profession." "This scene made us all tremble." "The kissing scene between the two heroes." "With the metal bar thatjumps out between them." "For safety reasons we invented a system ..." "They wore invisible strings around their necks like dog leashes   that prevented them from getting too close, marking the safety limit." " We've only got volunteers here." " Exactly." "And obedient." "The sound ..." "Tick ... ofthe hair was made by Jean-Pierre Lelong   simply by clicking his nail against his tooth." "Often the simplest, stupidest tricks work best." "It was a bit early talking about the kiss." "Poor Karin didn't like this scene." "It was slippery and she risked falling in." "The kissing scene." "We haven't got much time ..." "Julie, go!" "It's always scary because you know there might be an accident,   a miscalculation." "It's dangerous." " Don't cry." " lt's my contact lense." "It'd have been better ifthey'd been closer, but that was too dangerous." "The bathroom filled with water was a really interesting set." "We had to fill the room with water." "I'll tell you about it in a moment." "This ideajust made us crack up." "Dominique wore layers and layers of clothes to prolong his undressing." "When the mob breaks in, we got a great shot ofthe door crashing down." "The camera was fixed to the floor." "And of course a prop fell in front of it, so the image was totally blocked." "This is the famous scene Caro thought of   and which I saw later in a Laurel  Hardy film." "The bathroom that fills with water." "How did we do it?" "We built a small pool about 60 cms deep." "So the bathroom was open with a concrete wall   because the pressure was considerable, after all." "So we built this low pool, and to give the illusion that the water rises,   we lowered the set into the pool in 3 or 4 stages,   sawing it down each time." "The actors began playing standing up, then kneeling, then sitting down,   to give the impression there was more and more water." "This is the first stage." "The set is still intact and we see the water,   which was cold, we couldn't heat it, so bad luck for the actors." "You'll see what happens in the next stages." "This is the only gunshot in the film, which was so hard for us to get." "Feet filmed at a long focal distance." "Feet are an exception." "There." "The gunshot." " Tourneur is hit!" " Tourneur is hit!" "This is the second stage." "We've sawed the set and lowered it." "The water is in fact still at the same level." " Hey, postman, are you all right?" " l've seen one ofthem." "That gag always works." " The rotters are everywhere." " l know them." "They won't be back." "The water keeps rising." "But in fact it doesn't, it's the set that descends,   giving us the impression there's more water." "It was still cold." "We had wetsuits, but the poor actors had a hard time." "We shot it in the autumn, so it wasn't warm anymore." "Are you okay?" " Janvier!" " Voltange!" " Milan!" " Roland!" "Tourneur ..." "We loved the deformed bodies seen under water." "Another little Rob Goldberg effect." "This shot was reversed." "In real life I like making little mechanical contraptions like this." "That's something I really enjoy." "We've lowered the set again." "The actors must be sitting on the floor." "We really get the impression that the water has reached the ceiling." "We had to find an idea for the kiss." "There's nothing more traditional than a film kiss." "I was very pleased with my idea for the underwater kiss. lt was nicked   by the Americans." "For "Amélie", I had the idea ofthe kiss in the hall." "The film kiss is always a challenge." "This was the shot where a prop blocked the camera." "The actors are almost lying on the floor." "We're still in the 70 centimetre pool, with the set lowered maximally." "There's only 20 cms between the water and the ceiling." "This is another very special set." "We hired these trucks at the Cetac buildings." "In fact we're in the courtyard, we just built the outer bathroom walls." "We filmed it with five cameras and did trial runs." "On the body ofthe truck we built an enormous cistern,   which contained 10 times as much water as the bathroom would have   to get this result." "And we filmed it with five cameras." "We realized there was a completely safe place,   where Mme Tapioca, Anne-Marie Pisani, is standing." "She was sure she'd be carried away by the water,   but of course we didn't take chances with her safety." "The water had an enormous force." "I remember seeing Ticky Holgado passing below me,   and he was aquaplaning." "Amazing." "Afterwards we built another cistern on the 2nd floor to get all these shots." "We filled it and emptied it several times, so the set was ruined,   but we had no more shots left to do there." "The paint peeled of, but it didn't matter." "We were done with the set." "A lot of special effects were needed for this set too." "We had to rebuild and repair the bathroom so it looked like before." "Some ofthe boards are showing and you can see the tiles ... lt's not at all perfect." "Look at those bricks falling down ..." "Caro and I were so ashamed when we saw that." "Every actor in every film have problems with one line." "For Karin Viard it was that line." "We did it 50 times." "It's a mystery." "No matter who the actor is, he or she always has problems with one line." "Let me pass!" "I just keep getting into hot water." "What a day!" "Caro made these musical effects." "I enjoyed editing the sound for this scene." "It was hard to find adequate music." "D'Alessio's music is wonderful, but not for action scenes." "So this scene is made with Caro's little sound effects." "No more bullshit!" "You're toast!" "This is the gag l'm least proud of, but it made the audience holler." "The easiest gags often do." "That's a bit difficult." "The-kick-in-the-butt-and- the-guy-falls-into-the-pool-routine   still works in French film." "That irritates me enormously." "So I'm a bit ashamed ofthis facile gag." "Anne-Marie Pisani looks completely deranged in this scene ... ln a moment we've got another video insert   ofthe flying knife." " Damn!" " Bastard!" "The film was so cheap that we tricked this in one take." "We had half a revolver." "The special effect was storyboarded,   and then we shot it in reverse." "That's a tight budget for you." "The video insert ofthe knife is far from perfect." "Of course that's just a knife handle stuck onto Dreyfus' forehead." "He couldn't move very much or it would fall off." "Have lgotsomething here?" "I like that line." "It worked well, especially with Mme Tapioca's reaction." "I'm not dreaming, right?" "Have I got something there?" "It still makes me laugh." "That's a good sign." "It's funny seeing the film years later." "You see it with indulgence, yet you're merciless towards yourself." "It can be a very painful ordeal." "Always unpleasant to have a drop of blood in one's nose   that has to trickle out at the right moment." "Jean Rabasse's model for the last time." "This is the crane shot in the film." "We could only afford to hire the crane for one day and we did this shot." "This is the only exterior daytime shot,   which we did in the empty plot on the roof." "We did several takes." "But this one was quite exceptional with its "false colours"." "The sun appeared and disappeared many times, producing colour changes   that are normally considered errors and are not used." "We kept them because they had that magical feeling, which adds something." "It's a strange ending." "The main characters are under an umbrella." "When we first shot this scene, it was raining, and we found that too sad." "We preferred the takes without rain, but somehow the umbrellas remained ..." "One ofthese strange little things." "Look at the false colours, a bit offog, a bit of sun, a bit of it all." "And now it's clearing up." "And now to the end credits." "I like to present the actors in another way   than simply listing their names." "It's like a homage at the theatre, seeing them one at a time." "This allows the audience to applaud them at festivals ifthey like." "It's a little homage." "Sigourney Weaver really liked that when she saw "Delicatessen"." "I'd like to see the two boys today." "They must be grown men of 20 ... lt must be really strange for them to see the film again." "A bit like old family films, but in 35 mm, costumes and proper lighting!" "That was the only scene we cut out, Zardi starting his car." "You didn't see that in the film." "We cut out very few scenes." "I prefer to devote the energy, time and money to scenes   that will be in the film instead of cutting 3 hours down to 1 1/2." "I don't understand that method." "I'd much rather prepare things carefully and use all the material." "I hope I haven't demystified the film completely - l hope I haven't demystified the film completely "