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La cité des enfants perdus (1995)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
15 December 1995 (USA) moreTagline:
Where happily ever after is just a dream. morePlot:
A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process. full summary | add synopsisAwards:
2 wins & 10 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(12 articles)
Ogre and still more “final” guests added to La Fango con (From Fangoria. 12 April 2009, 7:31 AM, PDT)
Lost Boys singer G Tom Mac w/ Corey Haim at L.A. Fango Con!
(From Fangoria. 11 April 2009, 8:35 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
M. Perlman parle francais aussi! moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Ron Perlman | ... | One | |
| Daniel Emilfork | ... | Krank | |
| Judith Vittet | ... | Miette | |
| Dominique Pinon | ... | le scaphandrier / les clones | |
| Jean-Claude Dreyfus | ... | Marcello | |
| Geneviève Brunet | ... | la Pieuvre | |
| Odile Mallet | ... | la Pieuvre | |
| Mireille Mossé | ... | Mademoiselle Bismuth | |
| Serge Merlin | ... | Gabriel Marie (Cyclops Leader) | |
| Rufus | ... | Peeler | |
| Ticky Holgado | ... | Ex-acrobat | |
| Joseph Lucien | ... | Denree | |
| Mapi Galán | ... | Lune | |
| Briac Barthélémy | ... | Bottle | |
| Pierre-Quentin Faesch | ... | Pipo |
Additional Details
Also Known As:
The City of Lost Children (UK) (USA)Die Stadt der verlorenen Kinder (Germany)
La ciudad de los niños perdidos (Spain)
La ciutat dels nens perduts (Spain: Catalan title) (TV title)
more
MPAA:
Rated R for disturbing and grotesque images of violence and menace.Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
112 minColor:
ColorAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
DolbyCertification:
Australia:M | Iceland:16 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | South Korea:15 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:RFilming Locations:
Studios 91 Arpajon, Saint-Germain-les-Arpajon, Essonne, FranceFun Stuff
Trivia:
Translated into a Computer Video Game by Psygnosis, with co-director Marc Caro overseeing the production and art design. moreQuotes:
[after Mlle. Bismuth has been harpooned]Clone: Does it hurt?
Mlle. Bismuth: Yes, I'm allergic to steel.
more
Soundtrack:
Who Will Take Your Dreams Away moreFAQ
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"City of Lost Children" is a beautifully-realized if derivative dark fantasy in which a mad scientist named Krank, aided by a half-dozen clones, a midget woman, and a brain in a tank, abducts children to his offshore lab so he can steal their dreams. Seems he's unable to have any of his own. A sideshow strongman, played by a radiantly fit Ron Perlman, goes in search of his little brother, who has been taken by Krank's goons. Perlman, in another of his growing gallery of bizarre roles, is a perfect example of why I like character actors better than big-name stars. And how many languages does he speak, anyway? French here, Spanish (and English, of course) in "Cronos"; polyglot in "The Name of the Rose"; what next?
The strongman, named One, enlists the aid of Miette, a homeless, streetwise girl who, along with her fellow urchins, is part of a ring of thieves employed by a pair of sinister female Siamese twins named the Octopus. (Watch carefully how these evil twins smoke a cigarette. There are more weird characters per square inch in this flick than anywhere else outside a Heironymus Bosch painting.) Miette is played by Judith Villet, whose gonna-be-a-great-beauty looks, her air of intelligence and experience beyond her years, make her a sort of Gallic Natalie Portman.
Anyway, that's the plot: rescue little brother from the mad doctor. The images are the thing: with its rendering of a bleak, low-tech retro-future, "City" looks more like a Terry Gilliam movie than "Twelve Monkeys" does! And it slyly slips in ideas and images from other sources, to good effect: Krank himself is as much of the mad-doctor stereotype as is the character in "The Nightmare Before Christmas"; his outlandish electro-headgear is similar to that used in Disney's "Merlin Jones"; a nightmare on the loose swoops low along the ground through streets and alleys as a trail of green mist, improving on a similar image from "Bram Stoker's Dracula"; there's a confrontation in dreamland a la the "Elm Street" series; and while the idea of a brain in a tank isn't a new one, this is the first benign one I've ever seen. Familiar or not--and I'm thinking also of "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T"--"City of Lost Children" is still engaging, enjoyably weird, fantastic and funny, helped greatly by the fact that One and Miette are so endearing. The pace is a tad slower than it might have been. But this is, after all, a French movie.