Film: La Cité des enfants perdus (The City of Lost Children)

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro

Year: 1995

Language: French

Written by: Gilles Adrien, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Starring: Ron Perlmen, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon, Daniel Emilfork

I love Terry Gilliam's body of work. Sure he's had flops, but when he's on, he's on. So when he recommended a French film called "The City of Lost Children," I immediately rented it. I was not in the least bit disappointed.

The City of Lost Children is a dystopian fantasy set in a post-apocalyptic city on the waterfront. It stars our mildly retarded hero, One, a circus strongman with a heart of gold. He cares for a young orphan named Denree, who has one purpose in life - to eat. In this bizarre world, its freak show denizens are as strange as they come, with a mad scientist who created a monster named Krank that cannot dream, a race of one-eyed fat men called Cyclopses, a circus flea whose bite creates violence, a manipulatively evil pair of Siamese twins named Octopus, multiple useless stupid clones of the mad scientist, and orphans, lots of orphans.

The main story revolves around One, his "little brother," and a young orphan girl he will befriend named Miette. It chronicles their adventures in this mad world where Krank kidnaps children to steal their dreams. The problem is Krank is so ugly that the children are traumatized and only get nightmares. As you probably already guessed, Denree and Miette are in trouble, and only One can save them.

I've never seen better imagery in a movie, and to find it was made for only $18 million puts Hollywood to shame, for Hollywood cannot seem to make anything this good for less than a fifth of the price. Angelo Badalamenti provides a gorgeously dark score, where each piece fits its corresponding scene perfectly. Marianne Faithfull sings the closing song, and her haunting lyrics to this day send chills down my spine.

This may be one of the more weird movies you'll ever see, but Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro pull it off, and create at atmospheric film even better than their previous effort Delicatessen. If you like surreal art, you'll love this film. This is as good as it gets, folks. This is what critics live for - a movie that is so good that even they can enjoy it without complaints. I love this movie, and so will you. 10 out of 10 dead zombies.

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