The title sequence of Delicatessen, beginning with the credits, presents the viewer with the name of the film slamming down with the chop of a butcher’s knife. The bold letters are masked over butcher paper, insinuating meat underneath. Through the darkness of this title card, we see a pig suspended by chains swing in and out of view for a few frames. This pig is meant to resemble the sign that hangs outside of a deli, but is more grotesquely detailed than the average painted sign. The ominous orchestral music in the background fades out with the card as we are shifted into the credits. The audience has now been made aware that this movie will be at least a little scary.

An upbeat yet slightly creepy accordion song begins, letting us know this movie is in fact set in France. The camera pans over a severed hand on a messy table, and falls on a paper with the production company’s name written out by hand. This is our first introduction to the actual credits, which are all cleverly incorporated in the set. The lighting is dark with a yellow tint, continuing the ominous look of the title card as well as matching its colors. The camera continues to pan over to a camera, engraved with the name of the director of photography. This cute touch signals the viewer that this will be at least somewhat upbeat, even though there are still creepy overtones.

As the camera slides across the table, we see another seamless integration of text into the set with this embroidered name tag crediting the costume designer. The specific typeface and medium used perfectly convey what this patch is meant to be, while also not calling much attention away from the set. The set itself appears to be an extremely messy room, although it’s hard to get a good feel of where we are since the camera is moving quickly and is very close to each object it focuses on. This disoriented and dirty feeling is the perfect segue into the rest of the movie.