THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (1995) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Directors: Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet Writers: Gilles Adrien, Marc Caro, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet Starring: Ron Perlman, Judith Vittet, Daniel Emilfork, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Geneviève Brunet, Odile Mallet, Mirille Mossé, Serge Merlin, Rufus, Ticky Holgado, Joseph Lucien, Mapi Galan, Marc Caro, Jean-Louis Trintignant
"The City of Lost Children" automatically gets major pointers for being a stunning film to look at, and it gets a couple extra pointers for having the respect to not insult our intelligence and waste our time with a really crap story. When watching this film, you should be in the same state of mind that you are when watching last year's french Bruce Willis fantasy, "The Fifth Element," because save for a little better quality and style in this one, the two films share a similar idylism: that they're both children's stories for adults, and eye candy for the intelligent who don't want to really feel like having a whole lot of depth with their watching but still want to be entertained in the most original way possible.
That's what one of the strengths of this film is: it's able to be completely original and entertaining and incredible to just look at, and this is nothing of shock since it's been directed by one of the most visual pair of directors working today (although not really paired up anymore), Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who, back in 1991, made the incredibly entertaining "Delicatessen" about a butcher who hires men to work in his apartment building then cuts them up for food for the normal residents. In that film, they showed that they were amazing visualists, that they had a wicked sense of humor, and that they could tell a story with characters who were both as freaky as anything Fellini or Kafka ever dreamed up and also sympathetic. Who can watch that film and not feel some kind of connection for Dominique Pinon's desperate clown, or for the butcher's mousy daughter...or even the butcher?
"The City of Lost Children" is at once similar to that, in that it tells a weird story in a wonderfully stylistic fashion, but different in that that one was almost a satire on the results of war (the people were cannibals because of a lack of food because of a war), while this one's a flat-out children's story, similar to all those weird tales we heard when we were kids about monsters harming children and the simple folk who had to save them. "The City of Lost Children" has all this. It has a frighteningly evil man, denizens of monsters, an almost backwards world where anything is possible, and a hero in the form of a dim-witted, child-like circus strongman who's chief brains are in the form of his partner, a young girl who can't be over 10 years old.
But all of this is told as if it were a story that the writers came up with when they were kids and only now are being able to make into a lavish, special effects-laden film, much the same way Luc Besson made "The Fifth Element," a story he imagined as a teenager, but told from the point of view of an adult trying to be a kid again. Both films had adult humor laced with the right amount of kiddie humor that we all still enjoy, wacky characters, and some truly amazing vistas to look at (I would rank both of these as two of the best-looking films of all time). What makes this one better is a pinch of depth, weirder more memorable characters, and, well, a better story told in a more original way.
The story deals with a monster of a man named Krank, played by Daniel Emilfork, who has got to be the scariest-looking human being I have ever seen. Bald, and featuring a long face with a portruding mouth that makes him look like Nosferatu's lost brother, Emilfork is a freaky creation, and his character is a tragic one because his main flaw is that he cannot dream. Therefore, he kidnaps children, forces them to go to sleep where he peers into their dreams...but has only found nightmares. Yes, I know it sounds weird, but stay with me on this one.
Krank basically rules the city or whatever it is the film takes place on (like a floating city or something), but lives in a tower in the river next to it with dozens of clones of one man (all played by Dominique Pinon, who has one of the most flexible faces in history, allowing him for many comical happenings), and with a freaky midgit woman played by Mirille Mossé (picture a shorter, more anorexic version of that short lady from "Poltergeist" and you have what this woman looks like). He also controls a group of men called the Cyclops, who have robotic sensors so they can see out of a computer and hear extra-well. Keep on staying with me on this.
Into the story comes the aforementioned circus strongman named One (played by the ape-like Ron Perlman, who was the Beast on the TV show "Beauty and the Beast"), who's very little brother (Joseph Lucien) is kidnapped by the Cyclops, sending One on an odyssey to rescue him. He eventually gets the aide of a little girl named Miette (Juliet Vittet), an already-cynical little girl who works for a pair of siamese twin school teachers (Geneviève Brunet and Odile Mallet), who ask the kids to rob for them. With so many obstacles, it's a tough search, and it all leads up to a bizarre climax, even more bizarre than you'd think.
Just by reciting this to you, I can tell that I don't totally understand what goes on in this film, and it's really tough to find out. The film is so obsessed with being weird and introducing originally proposterous characters as well as just looking great that it really doesn't tell a plausible tale. However, this is, in all reality, part of its overall charm. The film's style of storytelling takes several major risks, featuring scenes that make little or no sense even after it has been explained by another scene, and not even managing to really kick in till around the fifty minute point, when the film's focus has finally taken control.
The film isn't so much about storytelling as it is about creating a world that is completely fresh and amazing to look at. The world in the film is like something out of a Melies film, only more dark and disturbing, and there isn't one frame in this film that couldn't be frozen and hung on a wall in an art museum. I shouldn't even need to mention to you that Jean-Paul Gaulthier did the costuming because you can immeadiately spot when he has designed the costumes for a film. The man just keeps on topping himself - look at his ingenius costuming for "The Fifth Element," a job that was so unrewarded that it's almost a travesty. Everything that makes up mise-en-scene really makes this one of the freakiest films to watch, as well as the most fun because the story is always intriguing, and a bit of a struggle to make through, I suppose. And it only helps that the actors in this film give their characters a bit of heart, like Ron Perlman's lovable performance as the oafish One, and especially Daniel Emilfork's creepy and sympathetic performance as Krank.
The factor that really takes this film over the top, though, is its wacky sense of humor, as well as its sense of style. Caro and Jeunet really know how to make a film extremely wacky, and there isn't one character who's boring in this film, including the several Pinon clones that run around in Krank's fortress. Of course, don't ask me what the film's truly about in depth. Is it a satire on the amount of humanity, judged by the way Krank cannot dream? Perhaps. Is it about the struggle for normality? I dunno, and frankly, I don't give a damn why anything is here, if there's a purpose for what's on screen. Don't ask me why there are a bunch of clones who can't figure out who the original is. I don't know and I don't care. I could care less about what the film is truly about, and really all I know is that it's certainly an experience I'd highly recommend to anyone with a sense of humor. What can I say about a film where the only voice of reason and sanity is a brain inside a fish tank with the voice of Jean-Louis Trintignant (from "The Conformist")? I suppose all I can say "Groovy, baby."
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews