The City of Lost Children

In 1995 I remember dragging my brother to the local art house cinema “The Grand” because I had seen an ad for a strange new film called the City of Lost Children. I didn’t know anything about it, except it looked weird. And in my book “when weird comes knockin’ you answer that door.” (Not only do you invite it in, but you offer it a satisfying Jamba Juice)

2 shorts played before the feature and we both still remember them. The secret adventures of Tom Thumb and Franz Kafka’s It’s a wonderful life. Finally the film started and I remember being enveloped in a cocoon of strangeness that only Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet could bring to the screen. The movie is French with subtitles and to the young mind that only added an extra level of exotic. Yes….exotic and weird..in the same movie…my two favorite flavors...if only you could get them at Baskin and Robbins. The movie is a little dark in places, and not the “let-me slip-my-arm-around-your-shoulder-so-we-can-eventually-make-out” variety, so if you’ve never seen it and plan on watching it with that special someone…more than likely there will be no “hootchie kootchie time” during the film.…well unless you are a particularly amorous person…and you are sharing a bottle of wine.. . and the sound of off-kilter circus music gets your blood pumping… and the site of a brain in an aquarium of green liquid with gramophone speakers on either side as a henchman serves it anniversary cake makes you sing “The hills are alive with the sound of music”….then, maybe.. there would be some hootchie..anyway. Sorry…I digressed..

Anyway the film centers on several characters, one of which is Ron Perlman, (Yes, Hell Boy himself) who lives as a circus strongman looking for his baby brother who was snatched by a mysterious gang. Along the way he teams up with the young Miette (Judith Vittet) and together the two of them eventually face off against Krank, a mad scientist who lives off the coast in an old oil rig. Krank does not have the ability to dream, as a result he is getting prematurely old. To compensate for this he has young children kidnapped so he can extract their dreams.
 

There is way to much going on in this movie and to many elements to mention here. With that said I remember leaving the theater back in 1995 with my brother, head swimming with strange visuals and a desire for cake.

Check out the trailer