''The City of Lost Children'' (french: La Cité des enfants perdus) is a 1995
science fantasy
Science fantasy is a hybrid genre within speculative fiction that simultaneously draws upon or combines tropes and elements from both science fiction and fantasy. In a conventional science fiction story, the world is presented as being scientif ...
film directed by
Marc Caro
Marc Caro (born 2 April 1956) is a French filmmaker and cartoonist best known for his projects with Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Biography
Marc Caro was born in Nantes, the native town of Jules Verne, who made a great impact on him, influenced his love ...
and
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Jean-Pierre Jeunet (; born 3 September 1953) is a French film director, producer and screenwriter. His films combine fantasy, realism and science fiction to create idealized realities or to give relevance to mundane situations.
Debuting as a di ...
, written by Jeunet and Gilles Adrien, and starring
Ron Perlman
Ronald Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in the television series ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1987–199 ...
. An
international co-production
A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companies ...
of companies from France, Germany, and Spain, the film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, ''
Delicatessen
Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany (original: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the m ...
'' and ''
Amélie
''Amélie'' (also known as ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''; ; en, The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain, italic=yes) is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume L ...
''.
[
The musical score was composed by ]Angelo Badalamenti
Angelo Daniel Badalamenti (March 22, 1937 – December 11, 2022) was an American composer, best known for his work scoring films for director David Lynch, notably '' Blue Velvet'', the ''Twin Peaks'' saga (1990–1992, 2017), ''The Straight St ...
, with costumes designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier (; born 24 April 1952) is a French haute couture and Ready-to-wear, prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an "enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs inc ...
. It was entered into the 1995 Cannes Film Festival
The 48th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 1995. The Palme d'Or went to '' Underground'' by Emir Kusturica.
The festival opened with ''La Cité des enfants perdus'', directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and closed with '' The Quick and t ...
.
Plot
Krank (Daniel Emilfork
Daniel Emilfork (7 April 1924 – 17 October 2006) was a Chilean stage and film actor who made his career in France.
Biography
Emilfork was born in San Felipe, Chile after his Jewish socialist parents from Kiev fled a pogrom in Odessa. A ...
), a highly intelligent but malicious being created by a vanished scientist, is unable to dream, which causes him to age prematurely. At his lair on an abandoned oil rig (which he shares with the scientist's other creations: six childish clones, a dwarf named Martha, and a brain in a vat
In philosophy, the brain in a vat (BIV) is a scenario used in a variety of thought experiments intended to draw out certain features of human conceptions of knowledge, reality, truth, mind, consciousness, and meaning. It is a modern incarnatio ...
named Irvin) he uses a dream-extracting machine to steal dreams from children. The children are kidnapped for him from a nearby port city by a cyborg cult called the Cyclops, who in exchange he supplies with mechanical eyes and ears. Among the kidnapped is Denree (Joseph Lucien), the adopted little brother of carnival strongman One (Ron Perlman
Ronald Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in the television series ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1987–199 ...
).
After the carnival manager is stabbed by a mugger, One is hired by a criminal gang of orphans (run by a pair of conjoined twins
Conjoined twins – sometimes popularly referred to as Siamese twins – are twins joined ''in utero''. A very rare phenomenon, the occurrence is estimated to range from 1 in 49,000 births to 1 in 189,000 births, with a somewhat higher incidence ...
called "the Octopus") to help them steal a safe. The theft is successful, but the safe is lost in the harbor when One is distracted by seeing Denree's kidnappers. He, together with one of the orphans, a little girl called Miette ( Judith Vittet), follows the Cyclops and infiltrates their headquarters, but they are captured and sentenced to execution. Meanwhile, the Octopus orders circus performer Marcello (Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Jean-Claude Dreyfus (born 18 February 1946, in Paris) is a French actor, comedian, and author.
He began his career in film acting in 1973 in the film ''Comment réussir quand on est con et pleurnichard''. Dreyfus is notable for his portrayal ...
) to return One to them. He uses his trained fleas, which inject a poison capsule that causes mindless aggression, to turn the Cyclops guards against each other. While Marcello is rescuing One, Miette falls into the harbor and sinks, seemingly drowned, but an amnesiac diver living beneath the harbor rescues her.
Miette leaves the diver's lair to find One and Marcello both drowning their sorrows in a bar. Upon seeing Miette alive the remorseful Marcello lets One leave with her. However the Octopus confronts them on the pier, and uses Marcello's stolen fleas to turn One against Miette. A spectacular chain of events triggered by one of Miette's tears leads to a ship crashing into the pier before One can throttle her. Marcello arrives and sets the fleas on the Octopus, allowing One and Miette to escape to continue searching for Denree.
Back at Krank's oil rig, Irvin tricks one of the clones into releasing a plea for help in the form of a bottled dream telling the story of what is going on on the oil rig. It reaches One, Miette, and the diver, and the latter remembers that he was the scientist who made them, and that the oil rig was his laboratory before Krank and Martha attacked him and pushed him off it to take it for themselves, leaving him for dead in the water. They all converge on the rig; the diver to destroy it and the duo to rescue Denree.
Miette is almost killed by Martha, but the diver harpoons her. She then finds Denree asleep in Krank's dream-extracting machine, and Irvin tells her that to release him she must use the machine to enter the dream herself. In the dream world, she meets Krank and makes a deal with him to replace the boy as the source of the dream; Krank fears a trap but plays along, believing himself to be in control. Miette then uses her imagination to control the dream and turn it into an infinite loop, destroying Krank's mind. One and Miette rescue all the children, while the now-deranged diver loads the rig with dynamite and straps himself to one of its legs. The diver regains his senses as everyone is rowing away and pleads with his remaining creations to come back to rescue him, but a seabird lands on the handle of the blasting machine, blowing up him and the rig.
Cast
* Ron Perlman
Ronald Perlman (born April 13, 1950) is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in ''Quest for Fire'' (1981), Salvatore in ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), Vincent in the television series ''Beauty and the Beast'' (1987–199 ...
as One
* Judith Vittet as Miette
* Daniel Emilfork
Daniel Emilfork (7 April 1924 – 17 October 2006) was a Chilean stage and film actor who made his career in France.
Biography
Emilfork was born in San Felipe, Chile after his Jewish socialist parents from Kiev fled a pogrom in Odessa. A ...
as Krank
* Joseph Lucien as Denree
* Dominique Pinon
Dominique Pinon (born 4 March 1955) is a French actor. He is known for appearing in films directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, often playing eccentric or grotesque characters.
Early life and education
Dominique Pinon was born in Saumur, Maine-et-Loi ...
as the diver and the clones
* Geneviève Brunet and Odile Mallet (née Odile Antoinette Brunet) as the Octopus
* Jean-Claude Dreyfus
Jean-Claude Dreyfus (born 18 February 1946, in Paris) is a French actor, comedian, and author.
He began his career in film acting in 1973 in the film ''Comment réussir quand on est con et pleurnichard''. Dreyfus is notable for his portrayal ...
as Marcello
* Jean-Louis Trintignant
Jean-Louis Xavier Trintignant (; 11 December 1930 – 17 June 2022) was a French actor. He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and went on to be regarded as one of the best French dramatic actors of the post-war era. He starred in many classic fi ...
as Uncle Irvin (voice)
* Mireille Mossé as Martha
* Rufus
Rufus is a masculine given name, a surname, an Ancient Roman cognomen and a nickname (from Latin ''rufus'', "red"). Notable people with the name include:
Given name
Politicians
* Rufus Ada George (born 1940), Nigerian politician
* Rufus Al ...
as Peeler
* Serge Merlin
Serge Merlin (born Serge Merle; 29 December 1932 – 16 February 2019) was a French actor. He became internationally known for his role in the film ''Amélie
''Amélie'' (also known as ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''; ; en, The F ...
as the chief of the Cyclops
* Marc Caro
Marc Caro (born 2 April 1956) is a French filmmaker and cartoonist best known for his projects with Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Biography
Marc Caro was born in Nantes, the native town of Jules Verne, who made a great impact on him, influenced his love ...
as Brother Ange-Joseph
* Ticky Holgado
Ticky Holgado (24 June 1944, in Toulouse – 22 January 2004, in Paris), pseudonym of Joseph Holgado, was a French actor and a frequent collaborator with Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
With ''Delicatessen'' (1991) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, Tic ...
as an ex-acrobat
* Lorella Cravotta
Lorella Cravotta (born 9 April 1958) is a French comedian and actress. She is best known for her role in the cult TV series '' Les Deschiens'' (1993–2002), in which she appears alongside Yolande Moreau
Yolande Moreau (born 27 February 19 ...
as The woman at her window
Reception
The film holds an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Not all of its many intriguing ideas are developed, but ''The City of Lost Children'' is an engrossing, disturbing, profoundly memorable experience." It also holds a weighted average score of 73 on Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
gave the film 3 stars out of a possible 4, writing that the film's design and visual effects deserved the highest possible praise but the story was sometimes confusing: "I would be lying if I said I understood the plot."
The film grossed $7 million in France, $1 million in Spain and $600,000 in Germany. In the United States and Canada it grossed $1.7 million. Including receipts from the UK (£401,523) and Australia, it has grossed over $11 million worldwide.[ Because its revenue was less than its $18 million budget, the film was a ]box-office bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
.
Interpretation
According to authors Jen Webb and Tony Schirato, the dual nature of capitalism constitutes a main source of tension in the film:
According to author Donna Wilkerson-Barker, these elusive aspects of humanity are presented within the film for various characters to identify with. For example, the relationship between One and Denrée represents, for Miette, a family of authenticity. Prepared to sacrifice her life in order to become a part of their family, Miette helps One to save Denrée from Krank's manipulative environment. In another example, Irvin the brain plays his part in overturning the same environment in order to liberate his "family" of clones. In the end, two boats filled with these two different families row towards their futures: In one boat, a technologically produced family of Irvin and the clones; In the other, a rationally envisioned family containing Miette, One, and the abducted children. This leaves the audience to question precisely what the future will hold for these two differing visions of humanity.
As ''The City of Lost Children'' "proceeds in full awareness that the past to which it is committed never really existed", the film has been classified as an example of the steampunk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or ...
genre.
Video game
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:City Of Lost Children, The
1995 films
1995 fantasy films
1990s science fiction films
Cantonese-language films
Films about cloning
Films directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Films directed by Marc Caro
Films scored by Angelo Badalamenti
Films shot in France
1990s French-language films
French dark fantasy films
French science fiction films
German fantasy films
German science fiction films
Science fantasy films
Mad scientist films
Magic realism films
Spanish dark fantasy films
Spanish science fiction films
Steampunk films
1990s French films
1990s German films
1990s Spanish films