The City of Lost Children, written by Marc Caro and
Jean-Pierre Jeunet, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1995, 120 min.
Seeing this movie on the big screen was one of the most intense experiences
in my life. The City of Lost Children grabs a dark part of your
soul and drags you into an even darker, danker part of the universe, the world
of the inner visions of Jeunet and Caro. This French team brought the hilarious
Delicatessen into reality from whatever twisted dimension would
produce such dark comedy. In The City of Lost Children, they
seem to be dead serious despite a few laughs here and there. Visually
overwrought, teeming with strange characters, and informed by coincidence -- a
crazy place to visit, and one that will stick to you for a long time.
The intricate plot deals with a group of children snatchers, who bring
consignments of kids into the grasp of Dr. Krank. The character One, played by
Ron Perlman, loses his younger brother to this group, the Cyclops. Also involved
is Miette, a young girl, and her gang of orphans, who work for the disturbed
Siamese twins. There's an ex-sideshow operator with a scary flea, and a whole
bunch of loonies hanging out with Dr. Krank. Six clones, and then another
character who also looks the same, but may be a bit older. A midget named
Mother. The brain in the tank, who needs some antacid in his water occasionally.
I'm floundering around here, so I'll stop trying to describe such a convoluted
group of characters. Pay close attention as you're watching, and all the
connections should be pretty clear.
The film's look is very dark. It's hard to believe people's lives could go on
amid such dankness and blackness, but most of the characters are pretty messed
up anyways. The attention to detail is very rewarding, so we get such amusing
sequences as the stealing of a key, and a series of coincidences involving
"French theatre" and a boat ramming a dock. The six clones are hilarious, and
the camerawork there is absolutely seamless. The visuals often overpower the
other aspects of the film, so sometimes it's hard to relate to a movie where the
"look" is more important than a focused group of characters or an easily
manageable plot.
Which brings me to my experience of the second time watching this movie. It
was on the small screen, about a week before Alien
Resurrection came out, just to refresh my memory of what Jeunet
could do in the director's chair (a comparison that turned out to be severely
detrimental to the newer movie). I felt less immersed in The City of
Lost Children simply because of the small screen, but I also was a bit
more critical of the film. Definitely a work of genius in terms of visuals, and
I had no trouble following the story and the characters. But the movie felt very
cold, almost inhuman. The people were pawns in the hands of the costuming
department, so to speak. The one big friendship of the movie, between One and
Miette, was a bit disturbingly played at times. As I said already, how could
anyone carry on a normal life in such surroundings? I'm not sure of my exact
complaint here, because I would never want to tame the extravagances of such
imaginative people as Jeunet and Caro. There are far too many indistinguishable
and simply boring movies out there already. The fact remains that I wasn't
grooving with the movie as much when I watched it for the second time.
To sum up: if you want a movie that will knock your hat off your head with
its originality, The City of Lost Children is for you. It's
disturbing, and funny, and dark. It's got its own niche clearly marked off, and
that kind of extreme uniqueness is not always what the audience is looking for.
But if you feel like you're in an extreme mood...
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