The City of Lost Children
by Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
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DVD details
Actor: Briac Barthelemy, Geneviève Brunet, Guillaume Billod-Morel, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Marc CaroDirector: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro
Brand: PERLMAN,RON
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 112 minutes
Published: 1999-10-01
DVD Release Date: 1999-10-19
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Anamorphic; Black & White; Color; Dolby; DVD; Full Screen; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of The City of Lost Children
DVD Review: Fascinating, haunting...nearly perfect
Summary: 3 Stars
I've always been interested with avante-garde films. My DVD collection includes "Brazil," (my all-time favorite film) "Ichi the Killer," and "Pink Floyd The Wall." Seeing this at an EB Games I was immediately captivated by the front cover of a scientist with the strange mechanical helmet, and after reading about the visual effects and unique style I bought it. What did I think upon seeing it? Well, it was "a jaw-dropping movie" as Stephen Saban brags on the back cover, but I also found it a bit flawed.
The plot consists of a madman, Krank, who lives in a lab in the middle of the ocean with six clones of his brother, a midget version of his wife, and their Uncle Irvin who is now a living brain in a fish tank. Krank works with a cult of blind men who see through contraptions (known as the "Cyclops") who kidnap young children on the mainland and give to Krank, who uses a large contraption to try and steal their dreams, as he himself cannot. The Cyclops, doing their thing, happen upon a tender hearted strongman, One, and steal his "little brother." While running after them One stumbles across a young girl, Miette, and her young friends, all of whom work for Fagan-like siamese twins known as "The Octopus." Miette and One bond together and share the adventure to find Little Brother and the other children.
The style is pretty impressive, I must say. The world is a surreal, warped version of a turn-of-the-century European port village, something you might find in a German expressionist film. Krank's lab is a nightmare world of strange mechanisms, nuts and bolts. The characters are all somehow bizarre, from the Cyclops cult to the clones to the female Siamese twins. Special effects of all kinds are used, from models to CG to film morphing.
The cast is pretty solid. Daniel Emilfork is great as the evil Krank, Dominique Pinon is fantastic playing the clones, and Ron Perlman does a fine job in his role. (I have respect for anyone who can speak French in a Russian accent) My two biggest surprises were Judith Vittet as Miette and Jean-Louis Trintignant as Uncle Irvin, the brain in the fish tank. Judith Vittet, for a girl 9 years old at the time, comes out amazingly strong and professional, and is very captivating in her role - unfortunately, she seems to have only done one or two other films after this and then disappeared from the scene. Jean-Louis Trintignant made Uncle Irvin my favorite character, making sarcastic comments to the villains and controlling the fate of things from his fish tank.
Before writing this review I briefed through the other reviews to see what other people thought. I noticed many negative reviewers said they turned it off midway through. Now, I didn't do that, but I have to admit...I don't really blame them. Some of the script tends to really drag, especially in the middle of the story. The Octopus subplot seemed to be the biggest offender, and I don't know if it was because it was present or merely dragged out. Particularly in the dock sequence and an extended boat smashing-into-the-dock sequence that gave me bad memories about "Speed 2." The main plot of a mad scientist stealing dreams takes a side-seat, and the storyline seems to come to standstill. I have to also admit I was a bit turned off by some of the darker moments of the film. A Cyclops member gets bitten by a flea and is taken over by the organ-grinder, stabbing one of his accomplices in the eye then strangling the other. (making sure to transplant his eye-plug into his victim so that he can watch himself die) There is a scene later where a character is harpooned through the stomach, with blood dripping from their mouth. And to add a bit of adult humor, rats go into a whorehouse with some topless prostitutes running out. Now, I'm not saying I'm against violence (I own "Ichi the Killer" for crying out loud) and it's not really that bad in the film as I'm making it out to be, but it was very unsettling to go from this child-like fantasy dream world involving a young girl and a simple-minded strongman to "Hey you get to watch yourself get strangled to death" kind of mood. Also, there should have been some serious editing. The tear sequence was a good idea but could have been done better if the shots had been tighter and quicker rather than as long as they were. I thought during it, "Shouldn't Miette be dead by now?" Another example would be the shot of the Octopus looking up at the boat and laughing as the camera pans back - could that shot have been any longer?
The DVD special features include a commentary by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Ron Pearlman. It's fairly interesting as far as commentaries go, and Pearlman offers some laughs coming across as a pretty modest and laid back guy. There are French, English and Spanish audio, with subtitles for each. Incidentally, I was somewhat suspicious of the subtitles: the audio under the commentary was English, and I soon realized that the dialogue matched the subtitles perfectly. Very rarely, even in the most perfect dubs, is this ever accomplished. It seems they just "dubtitled" it - using the dub script for the subtitles. Other features include some production notes about what every one else has done. I found some humor here since it kept bragging how people went on to do "Alien Resurrection." Any one who can advertise they were involved with that movie with a straight face and full dignity gets some credit from me.
All in all, it's worth at least a rental. This will appeal to many, and it has, but others should be warned to preview before buying. The beginning and end make the film worth watching if you can get through some of the plodding moments in the middle.
Description of The City of Lost Children
One of the most unique and visually stunning films in years, The City of Lost Children concerns a malevolent scientist who attempts to unlock the mystery of dreaming. To this end, he kidnaps young children and studies them as they sleep. From Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director of Amelie and Alien: Resurrection.The fantastic visions of Belgian filmmakers Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet find full fruition in this fairy tale for adults. Evoking utopias and dystopias from Brazil to Peter Pan, Caro and Jeunet create a vivid but menacing fantasy city in a perpetually twilight world. In this rough port town lives circus strongman One (Ron Perlman), who wanders the alleys and waterfront dives looking for his baby brother, snatched from him by a mysterious gang preying upon the children of the town. Rising from the harbor is an enigmatic castle where lives the evil scientist Krank (Daniel Emilfork), who has lost the ability to dream and robs the nocturnal visions of the children he kidnaps, but receives only mad nightmares from the lonely cherubs. Other wild characters include the Fagin-like Octopus--Siamese twin sisters who control a small gang of runaways-turned-thieves--Krank's six cloned henchmen (all played by the memorable Dominique Pinon from Delicatessen), and a giant brain floating in an aquarium (voiced by Jean-Louis Trintignant). Caro and Jeunet are kindred souls to Terry Gilliam (who is a vocal fan), creating imaginative flights of fancy built of equal parts delight and dread, which seem to be painted on the screen in rich, dreamy colors. --Sean Axmaker
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