“the city of lost children” doesn’t hesitate to jump right into the freaky, although it still maintains elements of weird sweetness, more apparent in jeunet and caro’s subsequent films, “amelie” and “delicatessen”. i haven’t seen “alien: resurrection”, however, and cannot remark on its sweetness.
the twisted plot centers around krank, a mad-scientist type that looks like a skull. krank’s numerous cloned brothers (played by the always excellent dominique pinon), dwarf mother, and a legion of cyclops have made it their duty to steal children for krank, for poor krank is unable to dream. the whole thing is overseen by a disembodied brain voiced by jean-louis trintignant. there are gangs of children who roam the consistently nighttime streets stealing for something called the octopus, which is a terrifying pair of siamese twins whose asymmetrical haircuts don’t lessen their resemblance to cnn style maven elsa klensch. the sole little girl of the filmleads her own rag-tag gang, falling in with a dim-witted strong man who has lost a little boy he had rescued form a garbage can. te strong man is played by ron perlman, who sticks out like a sore thumb, and is thus a perfect fit. so the little girl, miette, and the strong man, one, set out to rescue the lost child. although ‘stolen’ would really be more appropriate.
the world of the film is utterly complete, vacillating between nightmare and fairy tale, albeit a grimm’s fairy tale with violence and terror. the mise en scene, reminiscent of “brazil”, is flawless, and even though each scene is weirder than the last, it all gels seamlessly, complete with jean-paul gautier costumes, and ending with a song sung by marianne faithful. nominated for the golden palm at cannes, it was beaten by the yugoslavian film “underground”, so i guess they were on a bit of a surrealist kick that year. this is just a completely wonderful film, and i’m kicking myself for not having seen it sooner. thanks, willem.
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