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The City of Lost Children

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The City of Lost Children (1995)

December. 15,1995
|
7.5
| Adventure Fantasy Science Fiction
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A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.

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Reviews

Sexyloutak
1995/12/15

Absolutely the worst movie.

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Hayden Kane
1995/12/16

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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Gary
1995/12/17

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

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Rexanne
1995/12/18

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

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roystephen-81252
1995/12/19

One of my greatest cinematic experiences. For me, cinema has always been about imagination, and I just love movies that send you a positive message about how imagination can set you free.Seeing the world through a child's eyes, turning even the darkest, most depressive of worlds into a world of wonder through the sheer power of dreams and unbridled imagination - that's pure magic.From a certain point of view, most of Jeunet's movies are about that, and with their wonderfully bizarre characters and environments, beautifully choreographed clockwork-action sequences, dreamlike colour palettes and unique camera angles, they are true successors to Terry Gilliam's best films (Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen).Totally unique and heart-warming, maybe even more so than Jeunet's other two great movies, Amélie and A Very Long Engagement.

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gavin6942
1995/12/20

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.Ron Perlman is a great actor. He has an unusual look (not ugly, just different) and has used it to angle for some great roles in fantastic film. This one, of course, but also "Hellboy" and others. He is an unlikely success story, and good for him! And these guys make such good films, with a beautiful cinematography and a blend of the surreal and the fantastic. And plenty of humor. Arguably, "Amelie" is their best, but this is great, and so is "Delicatessen". It would be hard to pick just one.

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mahsa a
1995/12/21

I am surprised by how this movie has received this rating! To me it was a very disappointing movie, sad, disturbing and meaningless! I like surreal movies as they can take imaginations and take it one step further. This movie though was not successful at all. As another review mentioned: Have you ever been disappointed by a book by a favourite author. I really admire John Wyndham's works and would include "Day Of The Triffids", "The Chrysalids" and "The Midwich Cuckoos" among SciFi classics, so I once read "Stowaway To Mars" (one of his earliest stories). After a few pages, I thought "This is rubbish, but it's by John Wyndham, so it's bound to improve" and kept on reading - it didn't get any better (if anything it got worse) and I eventually finished the book with an acute sense of disappointment.

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adampnsh5
1995/12/22

I'm fine with movies that choose style over substance. I absolutely love Brazil, if that tells you anything. I was totally prepared to see a movie that had minimal plot and coherence, and was ready to simply immerse myself in the 'grotesque and disturbing imagery' as the rating touts. Another thing that intrigued me was the box art, which looked almost Aztec/Steampunkish. I thought that perhaps that type of imagery would dominate the film, or at least figure prominently in it. It did not. Instead the film mainly features imagery and sets from what appears to be the city from Alex Proyas's Dark City if it had been located on a French coastline in the 1940s.But getting to the point, what ruined this movie for me was not that it was to unfocused and lacking in action. It was the filmmakers insistence that everything be so insufferably f*cking goofy. I felt like I was watching a bad rip off of a Terry Gilliam film, made by somebody who completely missed what made his style so great. First of all, this is a tame movie. Not that that is my reason for disliking it, I'd just like to set the record straight. The film's rating is absolutely undeserved. It easily could have been rated PG-13, and contained nothing too disturbing for a young teenager to stomach. And even then, any scene that even began to create a sense of foreboding atmosphere was immediately ravaged by unnecessary and painfully protracted scenes of people acting like mentally damaged infants.Look, its not that I don't "get it". I understand what they were going for here, its just that they f*cked up (In my opinion). To put it simply, an otherwise chilling, absorbing film best described as Bioshock meets Brazil, is marred by disgustingly indulgent characters and camera-work by the filmmakers. For instance, the character of the mad man who kidnaps children to steal their dreams because he cannot have any of his own should be instantly tragic and threatening, a truly fantastic character simply by design. Any hopes of such a thing are tossed aside within the first few moments as he and the rest of his, what I suppose you could call family, scream directly into the camera for over a minute. Without any thought, they instantly reduce what should have been an incredible character with so much potential to a pathetic whimpering baby in the body of a man. They really seem to be TRYING to act stupid and over the top. Why? What's the point? There is no subtlety or really any care given to anything in the film, least of all that first pointless scene. It really seems as though that scene existed for the sole purpose of destroying the disturbing atmosphere that the film was trying to achieve right out of the starting gate.In the end the film had so much potential, and so much style to work with, but it was wasted in favor of the film's oh-so-quirky antics. If this is French dark absurdist comedy, perhaps I'm just more suited to British dark absurdist comedy where the comedy goes hand in hand with the atmosphere rather than the former beating the latter into submission and sticking its @ss into the camera lens.

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