Piano Tuner and Delicatessen

Back in Nottingham, there was an amazing video store called Park Video near where I used to live. They had the best foreign film collection in town and beat bloody blockbuster by a mile in terms of choice, breath of genre and best of all that foreign film section I love so much.

So once moving here we quickly found our local blockbuster (as you do) only to find it was in a little hole on the high street and had very few films worth watching on its shelves. Even the choice of ice-cream was better! Anyway, after going cold turkey on the DVD rental front we found this other place a little closer, though out of the way from our regular routes. To my joy the place was stacked floor to ceiling with films galore and a foreign film collection to rival Park Video's. Nice.

On our first visit we took out two films: as usual - one unkown, and another- a film either one of us had been wanting to watch. So we took out:

1. The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (the unknown)
and
2. Delicatessen (I'd been wanting to watch this one for a little while)

I have to say I wasn't let down by either film. The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is the second film by the Quay brothers, and is shot breathtakingly. A cacophony of animation, film, painting, opera, music, love and pain left me wanting more as soon as the credits rolled. The storyline was perhaps a little sacrificed by the artistry of the shots as it gets a little confusing sometimes as the director/s shots blend into each other and you realise that space and time don't seem to be a part of structure to the film. Hence, if when the Piano Tuner who isn't any old Piano Tuner, but a Piano Tuner of Earthquakes says:

'I can hear anything from a sneeze to infinity'

and makes sense to you, the movie is speaking your language.

Having watched Un Chien Andalou (this film is for another day) again a few days beforehand since the boys managed to borrow it from the Bartlett video archive, the Surrealist influence in The Piano Tuner is plain to see. Also the film stars Amira Casar, who was in Catherine Breillat’s Anatomy of Hell (oh and another film for another day!), you can't help but admire. In fact, after watching this film I returned the DVD and took out Anatomy of Hell - another must see if you like French cinema.

The second film, I saw in HMV first and picked up because the title on the cover said 'by the director of Amelie' which, when I saw, loved to pieces! Maybe its just the cuteness of Audrey Tautou. So Delicatessen had quite a bit to live up to before even putting it in the DVD player.

This is what amazon said:

'In a post-apocolyptic society where food is so rare it's invaluable and used as currency and people eat each other a young clown applies for a job at a local delicatessen.'

And if that's not enough to make you want to go see the film then there is no hope. Again the characters are instantly endearing and you will laugh before you cry only to laugh again. I personally loved the scene when the deranged lady who lives in the building who thinks that she's hearing voices in her head attemps suicide after several failed attempts. So, to any fan of black comedy- this you will love, I promise. American Beauty? hah. Kiss that little french ass.

Happy viewing! xxw