Having previously viewed a film by directors Jeunet and Caro titled "Delicatessen", I thought I was prepared to see another one of their works. Similar to that movie, the story has a distinctively dystopian feel to it with strangely realized characters, and unless one pays attention, some of the visual weirdness may overwhelm one's focus on the story. It involves a rather mad scientist attempting to steal the dreams of young children, kidnapped and brought to his laboratory for that purpose, though their cooperation is negated when they only dream nightmares. Although I didn't have too much trouble following the story, it just felt confusing with all the surrealistic imagery the film had to offer. One of the kidnapped kids was the little brother of Ron Perlman's character, a mentally challenged circus strongman billed as Crusher Bones, though he and others referred to himself as 'One'. I'd point out some of the other strange characters in the film but to be quite honest, they were all strange and not very likeable, except for possibly the young girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) who turned out to be the nominal hero of the story with One's help. As for the deranged scientist Krank (Daniel Emilfork), someone got it correct when they described him by saying "This man's a proper nutcase".

As a fan of Jean-Pierre Jeunet films, I went back into the catalog and found The City Of Lost Children. This shows the Marc Caro side of the JPJ productions. It is ambitious, anything but dull. It is also void of the charm found in every other of JPJs' movies. We get the fixated characters by the actors we'd seen over time, which is remarkable on its own. Its like a Christopher Guest production from that standpoint. We get to see our old "friends". In COLC our friends are a bit too creepy, with the exception of the eternally elastic Dominique Pinon in many roles. While the plot is a mess of design over substance, there are many familiar developments that are better laid out in Delicatessin, Amelie and The Very Long Engagement (the best JPJ film - if you're into that sort of designation). Here, being unique, or the "One", are something that is touched upon but this world of freaks is taken over by this old man who steals children for their dreams. The best summary could be made by stating this is a dark comedy that is Rated R for disturbing and grotesque images of violence and menace.

Many disagree with the previous reviewer.Not sure what the last reviewer watched, but City of lost Children is amazing cinema from the sets, color, acting, lighting, plot, it had everything pushed to the Nth from what I experienced. It is NOT a typical American style movie. It is French and luckily, they are allowed to have an alternate path to interesting movie making.This guy Jeunet puts a LOT into all of his productions. Almost a mentally overwhelming amount of style, info and actions (not action packed, but activities that go on in or behind the scene). He also did Amelie which is just as astounding and one of the best films ever made. Watch it start to finish if you don't believe that.The City of Lost Childen extends its name sake across many peoples from the twisted characters that are adults and act like the children they never were, to the children who are lost from being children and must be adults. Not to mention the abductions and the reason for that. So it is a win on many levels. One of the best, and I am so grateful I happened across this bazaar gem of a flick.Wish more movies were as intricately entertaining as this art piece is.

The movie is not as entertaining and uplifting as Jean-Pierre Jeunet's more recent movies, which must be one of the reasons why "La cité des enfants perdus" isn't as praised and being loved as for instance some of his other movies like "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" and "Un long dimanche de fiançailles". This movie is definitely more dark or tone but with still its very distinctive imaginative, fantasy-like world, spirit attached to it.If you aren't really taken by the movie its story, you should at least be blown away by its visuals. The movie has a great look and it manages to create a world of its own. As far as fantasy movies go, this one is definitely up there with the most imaginative ones. Not just all of its sets and costumes are great looking but also its limited effects and odd looking actors who play the characters.Don't really understand why most people praise Ron Perlman for playing a French speaking role and all the claims that he does it flawlessly must have been written by his agent or something. I won't pretend as if I'm an expert on the language but I've been to the country and had French class at school, so at least I know how it should sound like and Ron Perlman just didn't sound very French. I can still understand and see how he got cast for the role though. It must have been because of his unique and distinctive look. The entire movie is being filled by a whole bunch of quirky but unique looking characters, so Perlman fits in perfectly with them.The story is not that complex but it's still quite hard to keep up to, since so many oddball things and characters show up in this movie. It does really slow the movie down at some parts and I do wish the movie would had been a bit more entertaining and comedy-like to watch but this is, as it seems, due to the hand of co-director Marc Caro, who seems to be more fond of post-apocalyptic and darker stories than Jean-Pierre Jeunet. don't know if this also was the reason for their creative split-up as directors but fact remains that Jean-Pierre Jeunet has continued to make some beautiful, classic movies, while Marc Caro has had very little work since.One greatly odd and beautiful looking film.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/