Jean-Claude Dreyfus makes grotesque supporting characters feel capable of doing harm. We rate his sinister butcher in Delicatessen; the risk is treating that sort of eccentric part as all he has to offer.
Fi1m perspective
Clapet, the sinister butcher in Delicatessen (1991), needs to be funny without ceasing to be a threat. Jean-Claude Dreyfus supplies the physical presence, but also enough individuality to keep the character from becoming a single joke. We laughed uneasily at Delicatessen, because his butcher belongs so comfortably among its unsettling domestic details. That combination makes this a particularly good introduction to an actor too easily remembered only for his oddest parts.
The turn came with Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, after years of supporting roles through the 1970s and 1980s. Dreyfus had worked in cabaret and music-hall, a useful background for characters who must establish themselves quickly and distinctly. Delicatessen brought wider recognition; The City of Lost Children (1995) followed, with Dreyfus as Marcello, a flea trainer. The casting makes the attraction clear: these directors have room for a performer whose eccentricity need not be apologised for.
In Delicatessen, Jeunet and Caro sometimes overwork the grotesquerie, and the thin story makes us notice how much the visual invention is doing. Dreyfus cannot put a stronger plot underneath it. What he does bring is nuance to a villainous part, giving us someone to watch when the tale itself is less absorbing. That is a considerable service in a film so busy with its visual jokes.
The Lady and the Duke (2001), directed by Éric Rohmer, offers a useful correction to that casting habit. As the Duc d'Orléans, Dreyfus has one of his few leading roles, in a historical drama that gives his imposing presence a different use. He returned to Jeunet as Commander Lavrouye in the wartime drama A Very Long Engagement (2004). The reservation about Dreyfus is the ease with which such an actor can be sent back to the eccentric supporting part, however well he does it. Start with Delicatessen, but give The Lady and the Duke an evening before settling on the butcher as his only useful occupation.
Biography
Jean-Claude Dreyfus is a French actor born on 18 February 1946 in Paris. He began performing as an illusionist at the age of 15 and later studied acting with Tania Balachova. In the 1970s he appeared in cabaret revues, often in travesti roles, before making his screen debut in the early 1970s.
Dreyfus is best known for playing 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) and A Very Long Engagement (2004). His other credits include Fitzcarraldo (1982) and All the Mornings of the World (1991).
