The City of Lost Children (La Cité des Enfants Perdus) poster & wallpaper
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Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Claude Dreyfus ... see more see more... , Genevieve Brunet , Lorella Cravotta , Mapi Galán , Nane Germon , Ticky Holgado , Ham-Chau Luong , Serge Merlin , Rufus , Jean-Louis Trintignant , Marc Caro , Cris Huerta , Francois Hadji-Lazaro , Briac Barthélémy , Joseph Lucien , Hong-Mai Thomas

This visually inventive French sci-fi/fantasy tale began winning a cult following practically from the moment it was released. Krank (Daniel Emilfork) is a foul, monstrous creature who lords over the ... read more read more...inhabitants of a small island; Krank's emotional being is every bit as ugly as his physical personage, largely because he does not have the ability to dream. However, he has developed a machine that can drain the dreams of others from their heads, and he devotes himself to kidnapping children from a nearby harbor town so that he can steal their pleasant dreams. Denree (Joseph Lucien) is one of the children who has been spirited off to the island; Krank discovers that he's an even bigger problem than he imagined when his big brother One (Ron Perlman), a harpoon-wielding mountain of a man, sets out on a rescue mission. Once he arrives on Krank's island, One encounters a brain in a fish tank that has learned to talk, a group of clones who can't decide who is the original, a pair of Siamese twins, an octopus that guides a group of orphaned thieves, and a girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) who says she can guide One to Denree. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Flixster Users

88% liked it

62,800 ratings

Critics

82% liked it

34 critics

R, 1 hr. 52 min.

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro

Release Date: December 15, 1995

Keywords: different

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DVD Release Date: October 19, 1999

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Stats: 3,842 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (3,842)

  • jmanard52
    June 26, 2010
    jmanard52
    This was a strange one but it had Ron Perlman in it and thats an automatic two stars!! A very strange little film that took me a while to get figured out but once i got in I was able to enjoy the very unique vision of this French film.
  • EightThirty
    January 16, 2011
    EightThirty
    02/01/2011 (DVD)

    A very strange but interesting watch. The performances are outstanding by both adults and children and what a weirdly but fantastic world. It was like a silver-screen flick with updated visual effects which made this film feel unusual and different. Wow.

    The... read more setting is art, I mean the ideas and the artistry compliments the story giving it depth and darkness. What had me drawn was the background, it was very darkly, futuristic for its time and Gothic yet the people were from the 1950's so it seemed, very cool indeed. It's probably not everyone's cup of tea but it's definitely the type of tea that has an unusual blend that one learns to enjoy.

    The special effects were not overly done but it just had the right amount for taste and the clones just look so real, like they were real individuals rather than camera tricks, just so cool. It's definitely a strange one in my opinion but no doubt a watchable feature. I did notice that "Hell Boy" speaks in tongues? Did not know that.
  • 3niR
    November 7, 2010
    3niR
    This was strange. It's sort of like a fairy tale. The story sounded really good. But I felt okay (and sometimes bored) while watching this.
  • lewiskendell
    October 5, 2010
    lewiskendell
    "We're really starting to get attached."

    Some parts of The City of Lost Children worked better for me than others, but it's undeniable that it's a wildly creative and inventive movie from beginning to end. The overall look of the film is unique, you never quite can guess what we... read moreird quirk the story or characters are going to show you next, and you can just tell that a lot of imagination and passion went into this. That fact helped make up for the times when I lost interest in the story a bit. Visually, it's excellent. Artistically, there are a lot of great ideas, they just don't all come together well.

    I don't want to spoil the plot, but it involves missing children, a scientist who can't dream, a army of blind (well, not quite) men, a kind-hearted strongman, orphans, and a hateful set of Siamese twins. Mostly though, it's about the desire for family. The relationship between the two main characters, Miette and One, is quite touching, but there's also humor and action to be found.

    As I said, this movie is kind of all over the place, and some aspects work better than others. Still, I'd recommend it be seen just because of how genuinely different it is. Take a dark adult fairy tale/fantasy movie like Pan's Labyrinth (though, not as good) and add in a bleak dsytopian setting and some sci-fi, and you've got a good idea of what The City of Lost Children is like. If that sounds interesting to you, you owe it to yourself to give it a try, despite its flaws.
  • SirPant
    August 28, 2009
    SirPant
    Jenet & Caro are masters of cinema, this is a great follow up to their superb Delicatessen. A stunning film with some great characters and beautiful sets.
  • ripley7575
    August 23, 2009
    ripley7575
    A breath of fresh air. Yes, it is a foreign film, yes there are subtitles, deal with it. This movie has the most uniqe, three-dimensional, loveable and hateable characters I've ever seen.
    First of all, the concept is amazingly original and outlandish-but it reaches deep down in... read moreto you and pulls at your emotions. The cinematography is not high-budget but still a stunning feat. The style is perfection captured on film. The cast is beyond perfect.
    The depth of the world this movie takes place in is immediately evident. The villians (if they can be called that) are fully realized and readily recognizeable. The heroes are unlikely yet somehow fit in perfectly. This film defies a genre. It is at once a dark comedy, a unique horror, an emotional drama, and a deeply-believable Sci-Fi. The setting is dark yet somehow not hopeless-there are gleams of strength and quick flashes or personal strength in the Main characters. You simply know without knowing that they can and will turn things around.
    I can't say enough about this film, I'm still in awe. My god, i must go watch it again-just another proving that Hollywood is the past and Foreign Film the future.
  • flixsterman
    August 6, 2009
    flixsterman
    Twisted genius! Sorta' like Road Warrior meets Willy Wonka.
  • 366weirdmovies
    July 25, 2009
    366weirdmovies
    A mad genius is stealing the dreams of children in a fairy tale city; dim strongman Ron Perlman teams up with a streetwise urchin to get his kidnapped "little brother" back from the fiend. A triumph of the imagination: an amazingly detailed, weird, yet cohesive universe, with tw... read moreo knockout scenes--the opening dream, and the "butterfly effect" sequence where a girl's depairing teardop turns into her unlikely salvation--that rival anything ever seen in visionary film.
  • newvogueravyn
    February 11, 2009
    newvogueravyn
    It's very inventive, yes. Most unusual. But as with Delicatessen, I just didn't like it. There's nothing about the film itself that I can pinpoint as to making me feel that way. The acting's good, the plot is interesting and different and the visuals are beautiful. I just couldn'... read moret engage with it.
  • hobster1
    June 25, 2008
    hobster1
    Brilliant loooking movie is a marvel of set design, but the story is full of artificial characters that don't involve.

View All The City of Lost Children (La Cité des Enfants Perdus) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Stephen Holden
May 20, 2003
Stephen Holden, New York Times

Watching the film is like leafing through a giant sketchbook crammed with intriguing ideas that can't all be comfortably fitted into the same master plan. Full Review

Kevin Thomas
August 15, 2002
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

The City of Lost Children is a stunningly surreal fantasy, a fable of longing and danger, of heroic deeds and bravery, set in a brilliantly realized world of its own. It is one of the most audacious, ... Full Review

Jeff Millar
January 1, 2000
Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle

The City of Lost Children is a series of associated visual stimuli so imaginative and omnivorous that their spectacle has the effect of wearing us out. Nevertheless, if you think of yourself as warped...

James Berardinelli
January 1, 2000
James Berardinelli, ReelViews

The City of Lost Children is as visually striking and daringly offbeat as its predecessor. Full Review

Mike Clark
January 1, 2000
Mike Clark, USA Today

Children hasn't enough of a human dimension to be 'fun' itself, but it's still warped enough to amuse anyone with a tilted frame of mind.

Peter Stack
January 1, 2000
Peter Stack, San Francisco Chronicle

The French fantasy adventure The City of Lost Children is a dark phantasmagoria so visually amazing and provocative -- yet dense and confusing -- that viewers may need to see it more than once to take... Full Review

Roger Ebert
January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Many people will probably not find themselves sympathetic to this movie's overachieving technological pretensions, while others will find it the best film in months or years. Full Review

Charles Cassady
February 1, 2011
Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media

Bizarre, beautiful French sci-fi with creepy images, themes. Full Review

Geoff Andrew
February 9, 2006
Geoff Andrew, Time Out

Extraordinary. Full Review

Shawn Bowers
August 21, 2003
Shawn Bowers, Kansas City Star

A visually stunning and intensely bizarre fairy tale.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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