La Cité des enfants perdus

It's so bizarre that it's beautiful; it's so illogical that it's funny; it's so dark that it's so sweet. That's The City of the Lost Children. The plot it's that the evil -and weird- Krank (Daniel Emilfork) kidnap children to stole their dreams due to the lack of his ability of dream. Or at least he did it, until it came One (Ron Perlman), in the search of his adoptive little brother, aided by Miette (Judith Vittet), a street smart orphan child.

In technical aspects it's a master piece. The decoration give a baroque sensation of always being in small places, yet it's a full city populated of bizarre characters as the story itself.

The acting it's great. I'm quiet impressed for the flawless french that Ron Perlman show us, he's just simply astounding. I cannot say less of Judith Vittet, that being a child in that time she was a tremendous actress. The two have a good chemistry as a girl mature as an adult and a grow up man with the innocence of a kid.

I can't say that this is a movie that everyone would like, because it's not. It have a little of nonsense that might be not of the like of all the public. And all the dark atmosphere might be a little suffocating. So, take the risk and watch it, and then decide: you love it, or you hate it.

"City of Lost Children" is a beautifully-realized if derivative dark fantasy in which a mad scientist named Krank, aided by a half-dozen clones, a midget woman, and a brain in a tank, abducts children to his offshore lab so he can steal their dreams. Seems he's unable to have any of his own. A sideshow strongman, played by a radiantly fit Ron Perlman, goes in search of his little brother, who has been taken by Krank's goons. Perlman, in another of his growing gallery of bizarre roles, is a perfect example of why I like character actors better than big-name stars. And how many languages does he speak, anyway? French here, Spanish (and English, of course) in "Cronos"; polyglot in "The Name of the Rose"; what next?

The strongman, named One, enlists the aid of Miette, a homeless, streetwise girl who, along with her fellow urchins, is part of a ring of thieves employed by a pair of sinister female Siamese twins named the Octopus. (Watch carefully how these evil twins smoke a cigarette. There are more weird characters per square inch in this flick than anywhere else outside a Heironymus Bosch painting.) Miette is played by Judith Villet, whose gonna-be-a-great-beauty looks, her air of intelligence and experience beyond her years, make her a sort of Gallic Natalie Portman.

Anyway, that's the plot: rescue little brother from the mad doctor. The images are the thing: with its rendering of a bleak, low-tech retro-future, "City" looks more like a Terry Gilliam movie than "Twelve Monkeys" does! And it slyly slips in ideas and images from other sources, to good effect: Krank himself is as much of the mad-doctor stereotype as is the character in "The Nightmare Before Christmas"; his outlandish electro-headgear is similar to that used in Disney's "Merlin Jones"; a nightmare on the loose swoops low along the ground through streets and alleys as a trail of green mist, improving on a similar image from "Bram Stoker's Dracula"; there's a confrontation in dreamland a la the "Elm Street" series; and while the idea of a brain in a tank isn't a new one, this is the first benign one I've ever seen. Familiar or not--and I'm thinking also of "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T"--"City of Lost Children" is still engaging, enjoyably weird, fantastic and funny, helped greatly by the fact that One and Miette are so endearing. The pace is a tad slower than it might have been. But this is, after all, a French movie.

The first time I saw this movie I shook my head and wondered why I wasted three dollars renting this movie. It seemed to me that the storyline was worthless. However, I gave this movie a second chance, and this time instead of constantly reading the subtitles I paid more attention to the acting and events taking place on-screen.

I was shocked. The amount of creativity and symbolism blew me away. A lot of questions I had accumulated throughout my first viewing were answered by watching the movie carefully.

I recommend to everyone who thought this a poor movie to watch it again. If you don't speak French (like myself) try not to get so involved in the subtitles that you miss critical detail. It's there, and it's important, trust me!

How can you not love this movie? From the amazingly talented team of Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet comes this superbly original fantasy tale, that just oozes inventiveness and drags you into it's world, where it's all too easy to completely lose yourself. Caro and Jeunet were, of course, the good people behind the brilliant 'Delicatessen'. The City of Lost Children is kind of like Delicatessen mark 2. The style is still there in droves, except in this film it's much more abundant, and while Delicatessen had a base in reality, The City of Lost Children can easily be classified simply as 'pure' fantasy. The film is very French, and even if you didn't know where it's makers came from, you'd be able to guess. The French style is great anyway, and an excellent base to make a movie from, but when it's mixed with Jeunet's personal style, we've got a movie on our hands! That's exactly what this film is too; pure cinema. This is the sort of experience that I watch movies for, and so the film gets a huge thumbs up on that front.

The plot follows a man named Krank. Krank ages prematurely because he cannot dream, thus leading him to kidnap the local children and attempt to steal their dreams. However, as Krank is many a child's worst nightmare, that's exactly what he gets; nightmares, which just isn't good enough. The fun starts when Krank's men kidnap the brother of strongman Ron Perlman, who then sets out with a young orphan girl to find him. The two leads; Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet do a magnificent job of carrying the film, and their very different appearances and persona's blend well with one another. Judith Vittet really does steal the show all on her own, however, as her performance is far more mature than you would expect from an actress so young. It's a shame she only has four film credits to her name. It's not the actors that are the real stars of this film however, as the surrealistic style just steals every scene. You spend most of the movie simply admiring the lavish settings and absolutely sublime uses of CGI.

As mentioned, this is exactly the sort of production that cinema was invented for. The inventiveness on display is simply stunning and puts just about every other film in it's class to shame. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of today's finest filmmakers, and along with a select group of individuals is one of the few directors left that are still capable of a masterpiece. And that's exactly what this film is; a masterpiece.

I'm a fan of fantasy films. It's a mixed bag of a genre on all truth. Very rarely are there any great fantasy films. There are good ones or average ones that can merely get by on their looks. I do love the fact that fantasy films can paint such vivid and imaginative picturesque settings. As an example look at Legend. That was one of the best looking films ever made but the content of the film was not great. It was poorly scripted with hokey dialogue and a storyline aimed at 5 year olds, with creatures and effects that would scare the pants off younger children.

Now you look at the best ones and the rare ones that can be called classics with greats of other genres like Lord Of The Rings and in a more Sci-fi orientation, Star Wars. City Of The Lost C children is a French fantasy aimed at a more mature audience member, from 15 up really. It looks fantastic. The sets, the costumes, the effects, the cinematography turn this 15 million dollar film into something looking far more epic and majestic in scope. Jean Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro take joint plaudits and credit as directors, Jeunut more responsible visually and Caro for the character and story. This is endlessly imaginative and immensely enjoyable and is very quirky.

The story centres around a mad scientist, Krank, who is unable to dream, because of this he is aging quickly and is old beyond his year. He grows insane and has developed a technique to view and capture children's dreams so he can thereby inject them into his own mind. He kidnaps children from the nearby village and brings them to his lair, a king of oilrig in the middle of surrounding sea. He is aided by his brothers who are four identical clones of each other, unfortunately they all suffer from narcolepsy. Krank himself is a clone. His father who created them is now merely a brain in a tank and Krank was an unfortunate mistake who doesn't dream. The only clone who was right is an enigma called the original who has long since escaped the insanity of this evil lair only to be living underwater and a kind of insane junk collector. One day strong man, One, and his little brother are ambushed by Krank's men and One's little brother is kidnapped. Thus far Krank's captives have proved unsuccessful in his quest for a cure, because they all suffer terrible nightmares, partly due to his own nastiness. All this latest young victim responds to is food, he seems to have no fear and it seems he could be the one, just as long as Krank keeps feeding him. One sets out on a quest to find his brother meeting Miete, a young a troublesome orphan girl in the process. It's all good fun this film and while the story is simplistic it's a kind of delightfully Grimm fairytale sort of story that keeps your interest.

The cast are great. Ron Perlman is one of those cult actors who everyone seems to like and he has hit it big with the recent success Hellboy. He is a strong presence and unlike many musclemen of his stature he can act, something which has held him back somewhat because people have never really cast him as a leading action man, although in truth he's not blessed with good looks. The interestingly named Rufus, a Juenet stalwart is also very good as the clones, while Daniel Emilfork is excellent as Crank. Also good and a charming innocence is Judith Vittet as Miette.

Anyone who loves a visually stunning movie should watch this film it looks amazing. The sets, the impressionistic and exaggerated designs are brilliant. It is typically French in it's verve. This is a fantasy fans wet dream, believe me! ****