‎The City of Lost Children (1995) directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

The City of Lost Children

1995 ‘La Cité des Enfants Perdus’ Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro

Where happily ever after is just a dream.

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.

Ron Perlman Dominique Pinon Judith Vittet Daniel Emilfork Jean-Claude Dreyfus Geneviève Brunet Odile Mallet Mireille Mossé Serge Merlin Rufus Ticky Holgado Cris Huerta Jean-Louis Trintignant Joseph Lucien Mapi Galán Briac Barthélémy Pierre-Quentin Faesch Alexis Pivot François Hadji-Lazaro Dominique Bettenfeld Lotfi Yahya Jedidi Thierry Gibault Marc Caro Ham-Chau Luong Frankie Pain Enrique Villanueva Dominique Chevalier Lorella Cravotta Éric Houzelot Show All…

108 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Kaijuman ★★★★ 2

Birth Year Challenge 12/22

“Who has stolen the child’s dream? The mad genius Krank in his evil scheme. To what vicious depths will he not descend? Will the tale turn to tragedy... or have a happy end?”

A beautifully unsettling fairy tale brought to life before your very eyes. Childlike in its simplicity and masterful in its subtlety. Eerily sepia and rusted landscapes filled with wildly memorable characters with names like “The Octopus” “The Cult of Cyclops” “One” and “The Diver”. A visual treat of matte paintings, marvelous set design, practical machines, early cgi, fisheye lens, all within a unique and frightening world.

The perfect dark fairytale for burgeoning young fantasy/sci-fi fans.

Avant-Garde Expressionism through a child’s eyes.
Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 5

A grotesque and dark adult fairy tale featuring nightmarish freaks preying on children of the streets!

A stunning visual feast for the eyes! Creativity and imagination are above and beyond my wildest dreams!

Jaws drop! Hearts skip a beat!

As this magnificent masterpiece reveals its fascinating and intricate attention to details that will leave you wide eyed and reveling in the rediscovery of your sense of wonder and unbridled imagination!

Naughty Approved!
Review by DirkH ★★★★ 5

The City of Lost Children is a wonderfully dark fairy-tale, spiced up by the visual flair of Jeunet and Caro.

There is something inescapably alluring about a dark tale that is about children but perhaps isn’t suitable for them. Stories like this often reside in between dark fantasy and light-hearted morality tale and this one is no exception. The conceit is rather classic, evil man tries to steal dreams from children. It is therefore not so much the content of the film that makes it so enjoyable, but most definitely the approach the pair of directors take to present it. It is visually as rich as it is grim.

Like their previous collaboration Delicatessen this film has a lovely fluidity…
Review by Mr. DuLac ★★★★ 12

When you're born in the gutter you end up in the port.
-Miette

A long time ago, in a movie theater far far away, the only film I had seen from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet was <a href="http://letterboxd.com/mr_dulac/film/alien-resurrection/reviews/"Alien: Resurrection. It didn't exactly ignite a desire in me to pursue anything in his filmography. Although my opinion on the director was dramatically changed after seeing Amélie for obvious reasons, it took over 15 years for me to finally see what I believe is the film that got Jeunet the Alien sequel... for all the wrong reasons.

The City of Lost Children is a dark and disturbing fairytale. I could easily see why a Hollywood studio would drool over the thought of getting…
Review by George Hanna-Wilson ★★★★ 2

A very imaginative and dark steam-punk fantasy tale. Loses a little focus from time to time and has some dated CGI moments but a great experience overall.
Review by Devon Seltzer ★★★★★

If Tim Burton had a nightmare after watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, it would probably have turned out something like The City of Lost Children. Set in a twisted, cyberpunk, surrealist alternate post-apocalyptic reality, The City of Lost Children features more imagination per square inch then the average year's worth of films combined. The story follows One, a circus strongman who goes on a quest to save his little brother from the clutches of a mad scientist trying to steal the dreams of children. Along the way he joins forces with a tough young orphan named Miette, and meets a host of odd and colorful characters.

I could fill up a small novel just listing off some of the strange…

Recent reviews

Review by MiniGibble98 ★★★½

If Road Dahl's children's books were directed Guillermo Del Toro
Review by Dr_Mabuse ★★★★

A dark, modern fairy tale. So what is it really about?

The movie was released in 1995 to celebrate the 100th birthday of *the medium/ technology of film*

Think about that while watching.

Enjoy!
Review by n135479 ★★★½

Dr
Review by catmaster ★★★½

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부족한 주제?�식???�쉽??
Review by 𝔽.𝕃.𝔽 🦊 ★★★½

기괴하고, 음산하고, 난잡하다.
근데 제법 매력적이다.
.
바디오포털
Review by Kaijuman ★★★★ 2

Birth Year Challenge 12/22

“Who has stolen the child’s dream? The mad genius Krank in his evil scheme. To what vicious depths will he not descend? Will the tale turn to tragedy... or have a happy end?”

A beautifully unsettling fairy tale brought to life before your very eyes. Childlike in its simplicity and masterful in its subtlety. Eerily sepia and rusted landscapes filled with wildly memorable characters with names like “The Octopus” “The Cult of Cyclops” “One” and “The Diver”. A visual treat of matte paintings, marvelous set design, practical machines, early cgi, fisheye lens, all within a unique and frightening world.

The perfect dark fairytale for burgeoning young fantasy/sci-fi fans.

Avant-Garde Expressionism through a child’s eyes.
Review by Jordan ★★★

On just visuals alone this movie would be worth watching.

Unfortunately, the visuals alone are about the only thing worth watching.

This is a heady steampunk fantasy that jumps from wildly-conceived image to image with the wispiest of narrative connective tissue. For some, the experience alone will be immersive enough. I, however, found it to be tiring after the first third.
Review by 6116 ★★★

참 아기자기하게 기괴한 세상을 창조해냈다는 점이 매력적이지만, 그만큼 심히 인공적인 이미지가 거슬린다. 그 부자연스러움에만 몰두했는지 삐그덕거리는 부분들이 존재한다.
Review by J.M. Brandt ★★★★★

Visually unique. Creepier than most horror movies. Never relents its tone as a demented modern fairy tale (along with the likes of Pan's Labyrinth).

Not nearly enough love is given to The Octopus as one of film's finest villains. Seriously... why aren't their action figures?!