Jean-Claude Dreyfus gives grotesque characters enough humanity to make them worrying. We value his firmness in Delicatessen: amid all the eccentricity, he makes sure someone remains a threat.
Fi1m perspective
Jean-Claude Dreyfus makes the butcher Clapet a blunt, worrying presence in Delicatessen (1991). Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro surround him with peculiar people, but he has a straightforward job: the threat has to be credible if the comedy is going to work. He does it without making the whole film sour. We found Delicatessen funny and unsettling, because Dreyfus keeps its cannibalism threatening even when the film is being cheerful.
The performance gains from the company. Dominique Pinon's Louison has an innocence that makes the cruelty bearable, while Marie-Laure Dougnac gives Julie enough tenderness for the romance to matter. Against them, Dreyfus does not have to ask for our sympathy; his force is useful precisely because they supply the gentleness. We find some of the supporting eccentrics tiresome, and a cast full of conspicuous turns can make a film feel overpopulated. Clapet earns his place by giving the others something more serious than odd behaviour to contend with.
The larger roles with Jeunet and Caro marked a change after supporting work that included several films with Yves Boisset in the 1980s. Delicatessen brought wider recognition; The City of Lost Children (1995) put him back with Jeunet and Caro as Marcello, a flea trainer. These parts make it easy to associate him chiefly with the grotesque, though the work extends beyond it. Eric Rohmer cast him as the Duc d'Orléans in The Lady and the Duke (2001), a rare lead. He reunited with Jeunet as Commander Lavrouye in A Very Long Engagement (2004).
It is worth resisting the assumption that an actor with an imposing presence and a distinctive voice must always be employed as an oddity. Dreyfus's useful quality is his ability to leave some humanity in characters who give us little reason to like them. That need not soften a villain, and in Delicatessen it does not excuse the butcher. Start there, with Pinon's sweetness beside him, and watch how much of the comedy depends on believing the threat.
Biography
Jean-Claude Dreyfus is a French actor born on 18 February 1946 in Paris. He began his career in the early 1970s with appearances in films including Comment réussir quand on est con et pleurnichard (1973).
Dreyfus is known for his portrayal of the butcher Clapet in the black comedy Delicatessen (1991), directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. He collaborated again with Jeunet on The City of Lost Children (1995), in which he played Marcello, and A Very Long Engagement (2004), as Commander Lavrouye. Other credits include Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Two Brothers (2004).
