The City of Lost Children
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The City of Lost Children | |
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 The City of Lost Children Promotional Movie Poster (France) |
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| Directed by | Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro |
| Produced by | Félicie Dutertre, et. al. |
| 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) | May 17, 1995 |
| Running time | 112 min. |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $18,000,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
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.
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[edit] Plot
The plot revolves around a mad scientist, Krank (Daniel Emilfork), who lives off the coast of a surreal Dickensian French city in an old oil rig. Krank does not have the ability to dream, and as a result he is prematurely old. In order to supplement his dream deficit, Krank kidnaps young children in order to study and extract their dreams. Unfortunately for Krank this is an ironic curse, as the experience of being kidnapped is so traumatic that the children have only nightmares.
In pursuit of this scheme, Krank employs a sinister cult of blind men called "Cyclops" to perform the kidnappings. In return for giving up their sight, the cult's neophytes are given a mechanical "third eye" and a device which makes their hearing unnaturally sensitive. This augmentation is as much a curse as it is a boon; at one point the audience may witness the discomfort of one Cyclops listening to Denree chomp his food.
It is revealed that Krank is an artificially created man with superior intelligence. He was created by an inventor who also created six clones, a wife for himself (who later betrayed him), and a migraine-ridden brain in a jar named Irvin for him to interact with. Irvin's voice is supplied by Jean-Louis Trintignant; the Inventor and his clones are all played by Dominique Pinon.
The events of the film open with a sideshow strongman named One (Ron Perlman) witnessing an orphan he cares for, named Denree (Joseph Lucien), being kidnapped by Krank's Cyclops. It later turns out that Denree is a special child, one able to provide Krank with the ability to overcome his condition (due to the fact that Denree has no sense of fear). One sets out to find and rescue his "little brother", with help of a nine-year-old street urchin girl named Miette (Judith Vittet).
Also in the film there is a pair of Siamese twins known as "The Octopus". They run a thieves' guild in which they train and force orphans (one of whom is Miette) to steal for them. Due to unforseen circumstances, One gets caught up in the theft of a large safe (which only he can carry). The end result is the orphans' failure to completely empty the safe. Annoyed with this failure and Miette's subsequent decision to run off with One, the Octopus seeks to destroy them. To this end "The Octopus" attempt to secure help from One's former, whose trained fleas can inject poison into a person's scalp, inducing the victim to commit acts of violence when he plays his barrel organ.
One and Miette eventually overcome these multiple obstacles, rescuing Denree and the other kidnapped children with the aide of the inventor, who returns to destroy Krank's oil rig hideaway.
[edit] Cast
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[edit] Trivia
- To create the distinctive color scheme used in the movie, the actors were made up in white facepaint and the film's color was adjusted until they were flesh-toned.
- Ron Perlman was the only American involved in this film. He does not speak French, but managed to learn all of his lines and deliver them by rote. His character was actually written as a foreigner who can only speak in broken french.
- The Octopus are conjoined twins joined at the leg, but the actresses who played them are not. A prosthetic third leg was designed and fitted to the actresses, but they were unable to walk while wearing it. Consequently, the Octopus sisters do not walk in any shot depicting their entire body.
- In his audio commentary with the director on the DVD, Ron Perlman commented that the scene where he is infected and forced to attack Miette (Judith Vittet) was the most unpleasant thing he ever had to do in any of his films.
- During filming, Ron Perlman was bitten by the dog with the pulley and Judith Vittet was bitten by the mouse with the magnet.
- A video game based on this film was released in the US and in parts of Europe on the Sony PlayStation video game console. This game is now difficult to obtain.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The City of Lost Children at the Internet Movie Database
- The City of Lost Children Website Sony Pictures
- Screenshots
| Feature films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet |
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| Delicatessen (with Marc Caro, 1991) • The City of Lost Children (with Marc Caro, 1995) • Alien: Resurrection (1997) • Amélie (2001) • A Very Long Engagement (2004) |
