The City of Lost Children

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The City of Lost Children
The City of Lost Children Promotional Movie Poster (France)
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
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The City of Lost Children (French: La Cité des enfants perdus) is a dystopian 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.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Video game 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Plot

The plot revolves around a mad scientist, Krank (Daniel Emilfork), who lives in an old oil rig off the coast of a surreal Dickensian French city. 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 scheme fails 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" (called an "Optacon") 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 sees the discomfort of one Cyclops listening to a character 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 Denrée (Joseph Lucien), being kidnapped by Krank's Cyclops. It later turns out that Denrée is a special child, one able to provide Krank with the ability to overcome his condition (because Denrée 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 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 unforeseen 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 their former boss (a ringmaster at a travelling circus who kept "The Octopus" as an attraction), 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 Denrée with the aid of the inventor, who returns to destroy Krank's oil rig hideaway.

[edit] Cast

Ron Perlman as One Daniel Emilfork as Krank Judith Vittet as Miette Dominique Pinon as le scaphandrier/les clones Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Marcello Geneviève Brunet as la Pieuvre (1/2) Odile Mallet as la Pieuvre (1/2) Mireille Mossé as Mademoiselle Bismuth Serge Merlin as Gabriel Marie (Cyclops Leader) Rufus as Peeler Ticky Holgado as Ex-acrobat Joseph Lucien as Denrée Mapi Galán as Lune Briac Barthelemy as Bottle Pierre-Quentin Faesch as Pipo Alexis Pivot as Tadpole Léo Rubion as Jeannot Guillaume Billod-Morel as Child

François Hadji-Lazaro as Killer Dominique Bettenfeld as Bogdan Lotfi Yahya Jedidi as Melchior (as Lotfi) Thierry Gibault as Brutus Marc Caro as Brother Ange-Joseph Jean-Louis Trintignant as L'oncle Irvin (voice) Ham-Chau Luong as Tattoo Artist Bezak as Helmsman Hong Maï Thomas as Tattoo Artist's Wife Frankie Pain as Barmaid (as Frankie) Rene Pivot as Glazier Daniel Adric as Cyclops Christophe Salengro as Soldier René Marquant as Captain Enrique Villanueva as Spainard Dominique Chevalier as Tied-up Guard (as Dominique) Cris Huerta as Father (as Chris Huerta) Mathieu Kassovitz as Man on the street (uncredited)

[edit] Video game

• A video game based on this film was released in the US and in parts of Europe on the Sony PlayStation video game console.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Cinema of France
• List of French language films

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The City of Lost Children at the Internet Movie Database
• The City of Lost Children Website Sony Pictures
• Screenshots

v • d • e Feature films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet Delicatessen (with Marc Caro 1991) · The City of Lost Children (with Marc Caro, 1995) · Alien Resurrection (1997) · Amélie (2001) · A Very Long Engagement (2004)