The City of Lost Children

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The City of Lost Children
Movie Poster (France)
Directed byJean-Pierre Jeunet
Marc Caro
Written byGilles Adrien
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Produced byFélicie Dutertre
StarringRon Perlman
Daniel Emilfork
Judith Vittet
Dominique Pinon
CinematographyEric Caro
Philippe LeSourd
Darius Khondji
Edited byAilo August
Herve Shneid
Music byAngelo Badalamenti
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics
Release date
17 May 1995
Running time
112 minutes
CountriesTemplate:FilmFrance
Template:FilmGermany
Template:FilmSpain
LanguageFrench

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]

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 Martha, a diminutive woman; Irving (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a talkative brain in a tank; and six 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.

Cast

Reception

The film holds a 82% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews,[2] and a Metascore of 73 on Metacritic.[3]

The film is widely regarded as one of the first steampunk films as, despite pre-dating the widespread use of the term, the typical steampunk stylistic features of arcane, but visible, machinery are pervasive throughout it.[4][5][6][7]

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.[8]

References

  1. ^ "Festival de Cannes: The City of Lost Children". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  2. ^ "The City of Lost Children (La Cité des Enfants Perdus) (1995)". Rotten Tomatoes.
  3. ^ "The City of Lost Children". Metacritic. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  4. ^ "Steampunk Media: City of Lost Children videos". 25 March 2010. One of the Steampunk classics of the 1990's.
  5. ^ Blake Peterson. "City of Lost Children" (PDF). Film Notes. Brattle Film Theatre. The cyberpunk fringe movement commonly called steampunk
  6. ^ "City of Lost Children (Movie Review)". The Steampunk Forge. 28 April 2010. Everything about the movie seamlessly blends one aspect of Steampunk into another. If you have never been exposed to Steampunk before, and want a movie that will give a solid sampling of the genre, this is the one to watch. City of Lost Children is to Steampunk what Akira is to Anime, what Seven Samurai is to Samurai movies, what Shane is to Westerns, what Casablanca is to Romances, and what Star Wars (4-6) are to Space Operas. It is THE quintessential Steampunk film.
  7. ^ Cohen, Noam S. (2008). Speculative nostalgias: Metafiction, science fiction and the putative death of the novel. ProQuest. p. 166. ISBN 978-1243560216.
  8. ^ "City of Lost Children Video Game". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2007-02-22.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_City_of_Lost_Children&oldid=488191261"