Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s crime thriller, ‘Delicious,’ follows the story of John and Esther and their kids, Philipp and Alba, who go for a vacation at their summer home in the south of France. It is supposed to be a time off for the family to rest and enjoy, but things change drastically when they cross paths with a young woman named Teodora. An accident leads them to bring her into their home, after which she finds a way to stick around and ingratiates herself in the family, which starts to fall apart. Directed by Nele Mueller-Stöfen, the film presents a disturbingly realistic story and characters that engage the audience while also horrifying them at the same time.
Delicious’ Premise was Born Out of a Real Anecdote
‘Delicious’ is an entirely fictional story written by Nele Mueller-Stöfen, who got the basic idea of the premise from a story a friend told her. The writer-director’s friend revealed that they went on a vacation with a group of close-knit friends. A few days in, they were joined by a person acquainted with one of the people in the group. This new person’s arrival so drastically changed the dynamics of the group that a day or so later, all of them were ready to end the vacation and go back home. This story made Mueller-Stöfen wonder what storm a person could possibly stir within a group of people, who have loved and cared for each other for a long time, that they don’t want to be in each other’s vicinity anymore. The manipulation of such level became the thread on which she started to spin the story that would become ‘Delicious.’
While the premise was interesting in itself, the writer needed some meat on the skeleton of the story, and she got that through an article she read in a magazine. It was about how young Latin American authors have been using fiction and genre stories to explore the political and cultural landscape of society. With this theme in mind, the director also looked towards movies like Thomas Alfredsson’s ‘Let the Right One In,’ Bong Joon-ho’s ‘Snowpiercer,’ and most importantly, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s ‘Teorema.’ The latter, too, explores the premise of a strange man entering the lives of a wealthy Italian family and changing the relationships between them forever.
Mueller-Stöfen was interested in the way these authors and directors used different genres, like horror, sci-fi, and thriller, to create stories that would entertain the audience while also making them think about the world around them. She wanted to do something similar with her film, and that’s what led to the creation of John and Esther’s family and the mysterious Teodora, with her equally peculiar group.
The Fictional Teodora and Her Friends Represent the Class Inequality
When Nele Mueller-Stöfen sat down to write ‘Delicious,’ she didn’t have any real family or group of rebels in mind. All the characters in the movie, including Teodora, are entirely made-up. What the writer had in mind was the representation of class inequality and the presentation of the different lenses through which the rich and the poor see the world. In John and Esther’s family, she represented the wealthy, who are often protected from the difficult realities of the world that can be life-or-death situations for the poor. This isolation from reality is presented through the tall walls and the huge iron gate of the French villa where John and Esther live with their children.
Meanwhile, through Teodora and her friends, we see a different side of the world where the general populace has to fight for their rights every step of the way. This is also represented through the riots that continue in the background while the German family enjoys their vacation in France. This difference is also highlighted through the camera work, where Teodora and her friends are filmed through a handheld camera to express their volatile and dynamic nature while also adding a sense of intimacy for them. On the other hand, John, Esther, and their kids are mostly filmed through a static camera and symmetrically styled, zoomed-in scenes to show their disconnect from the world around them.
While highlighting these differences was important for the theme and the overall narrative of the film, Mueller-Stöfen did not want to present it as a condemnation of the rich or the poor or completely villainize any of the characters. Her intent was to turn the focus on social inequality and how it affects all parts of the world and, hence, can impact the choices and decisions made by them. At the same time, she also wished for the audience to feel the visceral nature of the story, presenting it as a feast for the senses, hoping that they get the taste of what the characters are having and feel their palette disrupted by the end.
Read More: Where Was Netflix’s Delicious Filmed?
