Marc Caro makes imaginary places feel crowded, threatening and lived in. His work with Jean-Pierre Jeunet on Delicatessen earns our affection through precise slapstick and unexpected sweetness, though the supporting eccentrics can wear us down.
Fi1m perspective
In the butcher’s shop in Delicatessen (1991), the crowded surroundings seem to belong to the people who inhabit them. Marc Caro and fellow production designer Miljen ‘Kreka’ Kljaković give us plenty to inspect without making the place safe or welcoming. Darius Khondji’s photography keeps it oppressive and unreal, even while the actors play broadly. This is what we value in Caro: the care taken over a room helps the comedy stay unpleasant.
Caro’s work in comics and illustration helps explain that attention to the frame. Before features, he and Jean-Pierre Jeunet made shorts including Le Bunker de la dernière rafale (1981), already concerned with confined futuristic spaces. Their first feature, Delicatessen, was followed by The City of Lost Children (1995). Within the partnership, Caro concentrated on artistic direction and visual elements while Jeunet directed the actors. The distinction matters, since the appeal of Delicatessen depends on performances as much as the rooms around them.
An ex-clown taking a job above a butcher’s shop gives the directors a sympathetic figure to set against their cannibal society. We felt unexpectedly protective of Louison because Dominique Pinon gives him a sweetness that survives the ghastly premise. The precise physical humour lets us enjoy his company rather than merely inspect another odd face. His romance with the butcher’s daughter provides a reason to care about what happens in a place otherwise rather busy finding new ways to be peculiar.
The screenplay, written by Caro, Jeunet and Gilles Adrien, sometimes lets the supporting eccentrics crowd out that romance. Some residents have a peculiarity where a personality should be, and the film keeps making time for them. We would exchange a few of those flourishes for more of Louison and Julie. Caro’s density of detail is a pleasure, but Delicatessen also shows how easily it can become a distraction when every figure is asking to be noticed.
With Dante 01 (2008), his first solo feature, Caro returned to enclosed science-fiction spaces, this time in a prison story. His later work has also included illustration, shorts and design. A survey of the features alone therefore gives a limited account of what he does. Start with Delicatessen for Pinon, and allow the fussier neighbours a little patience.
Biography
Marc Caro is a French filmmaker, screenwriter and comics artist. He is best known for his collaborations with Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whom he met in 1974 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.
Together they directed the short films L'évasion (1978) and Le manège (1980), and the features Delicatessen (1991) and The City of Lost Children (1995). Caro worked on production design, storyboards and other aspects of their joint projects. His first solo feature as director was Dante 01 (2008).
Before entering film, Caro worked as an editor and designer at the comics magazine Métal hurlant and contributed to other French comics publications.
