Crass laughter drowns out the man’s final whimper as a meat cleaver comes crashing down, delivering his end as well as the opening titles for Delicatessen. The butcher shop's emblem, a hanging pig, sways back and forth, in and out of the shadows. It is a dismal reminder of the realities of this post-apocalyptic world: meat of pig, cow and chicken is a rarity, and the only substitute is that of human flesh.
The descending notes of a piano usher the camera towards a notepad, passing a severed hand along its way, and the first set of film credits. With a macabre charm the title sequence glides through various twists and turns, the camera deftly capturing remnants of survivors past, while the jovial intro music underscores the film's black comedy.
Delicatessen's distinct visual aesthetic can be attributed partly to an intricate chemical process called ENR. Named after its inventor, Ernesto Novelli Rimo, a technician at Technicolor Rome, the process was created for legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Reds, The Last Emperor). The bleach-bypass process imbues the film stock with a sanguine overcast, giving it a cannibal quality that matches the subject matter.
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