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…

  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…

"City of Lost Children", if nothing else, illustrates a fundamental truth: one Santa Claus coming out of the chimney would be magical, a dozen of them pouring out of the chimney would be utterly horrifying.

A lot of movies employ "dream logic" (see David Lynch's filmography, for example) but it seems particularly appropriate within "City of Lost Children" which is, after all, about a mad scientist abducting children to steal their dreams. The scientist cannot dream himself and has aged prematurely as a result. He believes that stealing children's dreams will restore his youth. But the children are miserable and their dreams are all nightmares, which does nothing to restore his youth. One day he abducts the little brother of…

Quickie Review 
French filmmaking team Jeunet & Caro follow up their classic film Delicatessen with this dazzling fantasy fable for adults set in a surrealist society where a mad scientist named Krank (Daniel Emilfork) is kidnapping children and stealing their dreams in the hopes of slowing down his own aging process. However, there are 2 unlikely individuals standing in his way: a headstrong little girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) and a silent but sensitive strongman known only as “One” (Ron Perlman) and together they’ll foil Krank’s plan and save the children of the city. It’s a risky mission but they’re determined to accomplish it. Everything about the film has a quality to it that is almost dreamlike and very reminiscent of…

"City of Lost Children", if nothing else, illustrates a fundamental truth: one Santa Claus coming out of the chimney would be magical, a dozen of them pouring out of the chimney would be utterly horrifying.

A lot of movies employ "dream logic" (see David Lynch's filmography, for example) but it seems particularly appropriate within "City of Lost Children" which is, after all, about a mad scientist abducting children to steal their dreams. The scientist cannot dream himself and has aged prematurely as a result. He believes that stealing children's dreams will restore his youth. But the children are miserable and their dreams are all nightmares, which does nothing to restore his youth. One day he abducts the little brother of…

This movie really deserves a 3 star review, but I'm bumping it up to 3 1/2 just due to the visuals alone. The setting and cinematography are a remarkable vision, and every scene has some sort of dazzling effect to gaze at (except for the CGI flea).
Other than that, it's a run of the mill "kid gets kidnapped" and "man has to get him back" story. The villains were the most interesting part by far.
My real main complaint is the story was too thin to have it be an almost 2 hour movie. Without spoiling anything, there's a scene that takes place on a pier that is almost 15 minutes long even though it easily could have been…

Quickie Review 
French filmmaking team Jeunet & Caro follow up their classic film Delicatessen with this dazzling fantasy fable for adults set in a surrealist society where a mad scientist named Krank (Daniel Emilfork) is kidnapping children and stealing their dreams in the hopes of slowing down his own aging process. However, there are 2 unlikely individuals standing in his way: a headstrong little girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) and a silent but sensitive strongman known only as “One” (Ron Perlman) and together they’ll foil Krank’s plan and save the children of the city. It’s a risky mission but they’re determined to accomplish it. Everything about the film has a quality to it that is almost dreamlike and very reminiscent of…