Jean-Pierre Jeunet

As World War I draws to an end, a young French woman's greatest fight is about to begin. Mathilde has received word that her fiancé Manech is one of five wounded soldiers who have been court-martialed and pushed out into the no-man's land between the French and German armies... an almost certain death. Unwilling to accept that her beloved Manech is lost to her forever, Mathilde embarks on a extraordinary journey to discover the fate of her lover. At each turn, she receives a different heartbreaking variation on how Manech must have spent those last days, those last moments. Still, she never gets discouraged. If Manech were dead, Mathilde would know. With a steadfast faith, strengthened by hope and a stubbornly cheerful disposition, Mathilde follows her investigation to its conclusion, convincing those who might help her and ignoring those who will not. As she draws closer to the truth about the five unfortunate soldiers and their brutal punishment, she is drawn deeper into the horrors of war and the indelible marks it leaves on those whose lives it has touched.

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process. Set in a dystopian society, someone is kidnapping the children. Krank and his band of clones are using the children to harvest their dreams. Then they kidnap Denree, the brother of One, a fairground strongman. One sets out to find his brother. —grantss On a mist-shrouded rig in the sea, beyond an old minefield, Krank (Daniel Emilfork) ages prematurely because he lacks one vital function: the ability to dream. And so he kidnaps children from the harbour town, to steal their happy dreams from them. But a child he takes is also the little brother of carnival strongman One (Ron Perlman), who sets out to rescue him with the help of his precocious young, orphaned friend Miette (Judith Vittet). With this follow-up to the black comedy gem Delicatessen, directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie) and Marc Caro transport us to a dark and nightmarish universe where cynical adults long for the innocence of childhood. In a derelict port, a joyless genius has children abducted so their dreams can be harvested. It's left to the local circus strongman and an unusually mature street-kid to rescue their friends. Krank (Daniel Emilfork), who cannot dream, kidnaps young children to steal their dreams. One (Ron Perlman), a former whale hunter who is as strong as a horse, sets forth to search for Denree, his little brother who was kidnapped by Krank's men. Helped by young Miette (Judith Vittet), he soon arrives in La Cite des Enfants Perdus (The City of Lost Children). —Marie-Andree Poisson

Post-apocalyptic surrealist black comedy about the landlord of an apartment building who occasionally prepares a delicacy for his odd tenants. Centered on a post-apocalyptic society where food is scarce and used as currency. In an apartment building with a delicatessen on the ground floor. The owner of the eatery also owns the apartment building and is in need of a new maintenance man since the prior one "mysteriously" disappeared. A former clown applies for the job and the butcher's intent is to have him work for as little as possible. The clown and butcher's daughter fall in love and she tries to foil her father's plans by contacting the "troglodytes", a grain eating sub-group of society who live entirely underground. —anonymous France, post-apocalypse. Food is scarce and the residents of a block of flats must exist on what they can. Operating out of the ground floor of the building, and living in one of the flats, is a butcher. He has a method for procuring meat. Food stocks are once again running low so he hires a handyman, Louison. However, the butcher's daughter, Julie, falls for Louison and will go to any length to prevent him from getting the chop, including getting him kidnapped by some not-entirely competent terrorists/rebels. High jinks ensue. —grantss In the aftermath of a cataclysmic global disaster, with food being in short supply and grain used as currency, people now live in small communities, under adverse conditions. Not knowing what to expect, Louison, an unemployed ex-circus clown, arrives in a perpetually cold and misty part of post-apocalyptic France and rents an apartment in the dilapidated tenement building of the uncouth butcher, Mr Clapet, who rules his tenants with an iron fist. To pay his rent, Louison takes a job as a janitor, only to fall in love with a kindred spirit, the landlord's myopic daughter, Julie. However, amid chaos, destruction, and extreme hunger, Louison can't help noticing Clapet's impressive ability to find meat: a macabre secret that he will soon have to face. In the end, what makes Clapet's delicatessen so successful? —Nick Riganas In a post-apocalyptic world, the residents of an apartment above the butcher shop receive an occasional delicacy of meat, something that is in low supply. A young man new in town falls in love with the butcher's daughter, which causes conflicts in her family, who need the young man for other business-related purposes. —Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>