VHS Movie Reviews for The City of Lost Children [VHS]

The City of Lost Children [VHS]

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VHS Movie Reviews of The City of Lost Children [VHS]

Movie Review: City of Lost Children
Summary: 5 Stars

Though canny at times, this movie is an excellent example of french cinematography in the fantasy/sci-fi realm. The story has twists and turns with unforgetable characters on the curve of every loop and keeps the viewer entranced. Defintetly a fantastic movie for anyone that appreciated such films as Mirror Mask, The Labrynth (and Pan's Labrynth for that matter), and The Dark Crystal. For those that haven't been exposed to this type of genre, one may find a new door into these cult films of a different dimension and into a new mindset.

Movie Review: review for The City of Lost Children
Summary: 4 Stars

I enjoyed this movie a great deal. It was a surreal look at an alternate timeline that appears to be neither in the future nor in the past.

The story is about a circus strongman who is attempting to retrive his younger friend from a group of kidnappers. Along the way he meets orphans, conjoined twins, cyborgs, and clones.

If you like movies in the vein of Tim Burton films, or Pan's Labrynth, I belive you'll enjoy this one.

Movie Review: another french masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars

This film is barly a science fiction film, it's more of a hodge podge of fantasy, old monster movies and fairy tales with many dream and surreal sequances.. City of Lost Children is more like the Wizard of Oz than like the Matrix, but is still dipped in enough science fiction jucies to suit my tastes. The plot revolves around a mad scientist, Krank (Daniel Emilfork), who lives off the coast of a surreal Dickensian French city in an old oil rig.

Krank does not have the ability to dream, and as a result he is prematurely old. In order to supplement his dream deficit, Krank kidnaps young children in order to study and extract their dreams. Unfortunately for Krank this is a self-fulfilling curse, as the experience of being kidnapped is so traumatic that the children have only nightmares.
In pursuit of this scheme, Krank employs a sinister cult of blind men called "Cyclops" to perform the kidnappings.

In return for giving up their sight, the cult's neophytes are given a mechanical "third eye" and a device which makes their hearing unnaturally sensitive. This augmentation is as much a curse as it is a boon; at one point the audience may witness the discomfort of one Cyclops listening to Denree chomp his food.
It is revealed that Krank is an artificially created man with superior intelligence. He was created by an inventor who also created six clones, a wife for himself (who later betrayed him), and a migraine-ridden brain in a jar named Irvin for him to interact with. Irvin's voice is supplied by Jean-Louis Trintignant; the Inventor and his clones are all played by Dominique Pinon.

The events of the film open with a sideshow strongman named One (Ron Perlman of hellboy fame) witnessing an orphan he cares for, named Denree (Joseph Lucien), being kidnapped by Krank's Cyclops. It later turns out that Denree is a special child, one able to provide Krank with the ability to overcome his condition (due to the fact that Denree has no sense of fear). One sets out to find and rescue his "little brother", with help of a nine-year-old street urchin girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) who holds the screen like no other child actress that I've seen.

Also in the film are a pair of Siamese twins known as "The Octopus". They run a thieves' guild in which they train and force orphans (one of whom is Miette) to steal for them. Due to unforseen circumstances, One gets caught up in a the theft of a large safe (which only he can carry). The end result of which is the orphans' failure to completely empty the safe.

Annoyed with this failure and Miette's subsequent decision to run off with One (Miette is their best thief) the Octopus seeks to destroy them. To this end they attempt to secure help from their former sideshow employer, whose trained fleas can inject poison into a person's scalp, inducing the victim to commit acts of violence when the flea-master plays his barrel organ and his scenes are the best in the movie.

Directed by the french duo of Jeunet & Caro who also did the yummy canniable flick "Delicatessen" (Jeunet later did Alien Reserection and the french film "Amelie") The story telling is wonderful the direction is flawless and the special effects are some of the best you could ever see in the mid 90's cinima. I don't know any one who has seen this film that doen't love it on some level. Yes, there are some confussing elements to it and takes some weird turns but this movie with all it's layers forces the movie goer to fill in the blanks and think outside the box to fully understand the complexites of this film...I've seen it a dozen times and I'm almost there!

Movie Review: Will you like this film?
Summary: 5 Stars

I saw this film several years ago and found it striking and memorable. You might like it if you enjoyed "Dark City", "Brazil", or "The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover".

It was so memorable that, after several years, I tracked it down (having forgotten the title) and bought a copy.

Unlike so many Hollywood plots, this defies stereotyping. Highly recommended.