La Cité des enfants perdus

"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.

Many disagree with the previous reviewer.

Not sure what the last reviewer watched, but City of lost Children is amazing cinema from the sets, color, acting, lighting, plot, it had everything pushed to the Nth from what I experienced.

It is NOT a typical American style movie. It is French and luckily, they are allowed to have an alternate path to interesting movie making.

This guy Jeunet puts a LOT into all of his productions. Almost a mentally overwhelming amount of style, info and actions (not action packed, but activities that go on in or behind the scene). He also did Amelie which is just as astounding and one of the best films ever made. Watch it start to finish if you don't believe that.

The City of Lost Childen extends its name sake across many peoples from the twisted characters that are adults and act like the children they never were, to the children who are lost from being children and must be adults. Not to mention the abductions and the reason for that.

So it is a win on many levels. One of the best, and I am so grateful I happened across this bazaar gem of a flick.

Wish more movies were as intricately entertaining as this art piece is.

The City of Lost Children is my all time favorite movie. It is unlike anything I've ever seen or experienced before. It's a movie that I hold dear to my heart and will never forget. I have to be honest though, the first time I saw this movie, I really didn't like it at all. The story was too confusing, and the characters were extremely weird and twisted. After watching it a second and third time, however, I understood what was going on more, and could spend more time looking at the visuals rather than the subtitles. Speaking of visuals, this movie has it in spades. The environment that Jean-Pierre Jeunet created is out of this world. The city is very dark and the water looks as if there are secrets hidden within. The mood the soundtrack sets is perfect for the scenery and the superb acting by everybody (including the kids) just adds to the greatness of this flick. I highly recommend this movie, it's one of those movies that you will never forget watching, and the images will stay in your head for a very long time. A beautiful, beautiful, movie. 10/10