The City of Lost Children
| The City of Lost Children | |
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 Movie Poster (France) |
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| Directed by | Jean-Pierre Jeunet Marc Caro |
| Produced by | Félicie Dutertre |
| Written by | Gilles Adrien Jean-Pierre Jeunet |
| Starring | Ron Perlman Daniel Emilfork Judith Vittet Dominique Pinon |
| Music by | Angelo Badalamenti |
| Cinematography | Eric Caro Philippe LeSourd Darius Khondji |
| Editing by | Ailo August Herve Shneid |
| Distributed by | Sony Pictures Classics |
| Release date(s) | 17 May 1995 |
| Running time | 112 minutes |
| Country | France Germany Spain |
| Language | French |
The City of Lost Children (French: La Cité des enfants perdus) is a French fantasy/drama film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet released in 1995. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.[1]
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[edit] Plot
From an ocean rig, a demented scientist, Krank (Daniel Emilfork), kidnaps children to steal their dreams. Among them is the little brother, Denree (Joseph Lucien), of carnival strongman and former Russian sailor One (Ron Perlman), who sets out to rescue him with the help of a young, orphaned, thieves' guild member named Miette (Judith Vittet). They delve into the world of a bio-mechanical kidnapping cult and discover the connection between the scientist and the missing Denree.
Krank is both aided and hindered by a diminutive woman Martha, Irving (Jean-Louis Trintignant) a talkative brain in a tank, and 6 identical clones of the genius (Dominique Pinon) who created them all and has been missing for many years. They support the cult with technology as they gather children for Krank's experiments to give him dreams as without the ability he is aging rapidly.
Conjoined twins known as the Octopus control the guild of thieves in their robberies but have become distrustful of Miette and hire One to help the children steal a safe. The Octopus believes Miette has been holding out and has deserted to help One. They employ performer Marcello (Jean-Claude_Dreyfus) to ensure Miette pays and One returns to them, and much to his distaste he allows Miette to drown while rescuing One from the cult using a mind control system.
Beneath the waters Miette's last sight is that of a deep sea diver who takes her to his lair and catalogues her body. He is revealed to be a delusional paranoid and identical to the clones except older with a beard. An accident revives Miette and she finds One and Marcello both drinking and full of sorrow in a bar. The angered Octopus has a henchman (Rufus) dispose of the bumbling Marcello and uses the stolen mind control to turn One against Miette; the smallest of actions has the largest of results in a spectacular chain of events leading to the Octopus' demise instead.
When a dream escapes the rig, it plants information in Miette's mind and restores some of the diver's memories, including how he was attacked by Krank and the woman he created as a wife and dropped into the sea. They all converge on the rig with the Genius armed to destroy it and the duo to rescue Denree. Miette is forced to enter a dream world to release Denree from the dream extracting machine as the Genius straps himself and dynamite to the legs of the rig. In the dream world Miette is joined by Krank where she uses her imagination to control the dream and foil him once and for all. One and Miette rescue all the children as the explosions start and the Genius finds papers, finally regaining his memory of who he is as the clones and Irving row away.
[edit] Cast
- Ron Perlman as One
- Joseph Lucien as Denree
- Daniel Emilfork as Krank
- Judith Vittet as Miette
- Dominique Pinon as the diver
- Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Marcello
- Rufus as Peeler
- Ticky Holgado as Ex-acrobat
- Marc Caro as Brother Ange-Joseph
- Jean-Louis Trintignant as L'oncle Irvin (voice)
- Mathieu Kassovitz as Man on the street (uncredited)
- Geneviève Brunet as la Pieuvre
- Odile Mallet as la Pieuvre
[edit] Reception
The film holds a 82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews,[2] and a Metascore of 73 on Metacritic.[3]
[edit] Video game
A video game based on the film was released in the US and in parts of Europe for the PlayStation console and PC.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: The City of Lost Children". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/3353/year/1995.html. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
- ^ "The City of Lost Children (La Cité des Enfants Perdus) (1995)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/city_of_lost_children/.
- ^ "The City of Lost Children". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-city-of-lost-children. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
- ^ "City of Lost Children Video Game". GameFAQs. http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/data/196922.html. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
[edit] External links
- The City of Lost Children Website at Sony Pictures
- The City of Lost Children at the Internet Movie Database
- The City of Lost Children at AllRovi
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