City of Lost Children

UPC: 043396400191

Studio: Columbia TriStar

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Violence, Not For Children, Adult Humor]

Summary: This visually inventive French sci-fi/fantasy tale began winning a cult following practically from the moment it was released. Krank (Daniel Emilfork) is a foul, monstrous creature who lords over the inhabitants of a small island; Krank's emotional being is every bit as ugly as his physical personage, largely because he does not have the ability to dream. However, he has developed a machine that can drain the dreams of others from their heads, and he devotes himself to kidnapping children from a nearby harbor town so that he can steal their pleasant dreams. Denree (Joseph Lucien) is one of the children who has been spirited off to the island; Krank discovers that he's an even bigger problem than he imagined when his big brother One (Ron Perlman), a harpoon-wielding mountain of a man, sets out on a rescue mission. Once he arrives on Krank's island, One encounters a brain in a fish tank that has learned to talk, a group of clones who can't decide who is the original, a pair of Siamese twins, an octopus that guides a group of orphaned thieves, and a girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) who says she can guide One to Denree. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Category: Fantasy

Awards: Best Production Design – French Academy of Cinema Best Foreign Film – Independent Spirit Awards

Features: Interactive menus
Languages: French [original language], English, Spanish
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Theatrical trailer
Scene selections
Full-screen and widescreen formats

City of Lost Children

Format: DVD

Release Date: 10/19/1999

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen, 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DS Dolby Surround (4.0)

Runtime: 112 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 -- Widescreen
0. Scene Selections
1. Start [4:23]
2. The City [2:16]
3. Mr. One [6:14]
4. Birthday Party [2:08]
5. Making Krank Cry [2:19]
6. The Octopus [1:40]
7. The Robbery [4:25]
8. Retrieving One [2:41]
9. Informing the Octopus [6:41]
10. Cyclops Meeting [5:22]
11. Selling Information [2:31]
12. Recruiting Marcello [2:21]
13. Santa Krank [6:50]
14. Underwater Rescuer [5:10]
15. Miette & Friends [3:59]
16. Saving One [3:02]
17. One's Past [2:21]
18. Nightmares [4:44]
19. Finishing Marcello [:43]
20. Dinner Guest [2:20]
21. Sore Feet [2:12]
22. Tattoo Artist [1:53]
23. Farewell Song [2:27]
24. Chain Reaction [4:53]
25. Marcello's Revenge [10:55]
26. Miette Meets Irvin [1:25]
27. Inside the Dream [6:57]
28. Escape [9:09]
Side #2 -- Full Screen
0. Scene Selections
1. Start [4:23]
2. The City [2:16]
3. Mr. One [6:14]
4. Birthday Party [2:08]
5. Making Krank Cry [2:19]
6. The Octopus [1:40]
7. The Robbery [4:25]
8. Retrieving One [2:41]
9. Informing the Octopus [6:41]
10. Cyclops Meeting [5:22]
11. Selling Information [2:31]
12. Recruiting Marcello [2:21]
13. Santa Krank [6:50]
14. Underwater Rescuer [5:10]
15. Miette & Friends [3:59]
16. Saving One [3:02]
17. One's Past [2:21]
18. Nightmares [4:44]
19. Finishing Marcello [:43]
20. Dinner Guest [2:20]
21. Sore Feet [2:12]
22. Tattoo Artist [1:53]
23. Farewell Song [2:27]
24. Chain Reaction [4:53]
25. Marcello's Revenge [10:55]
26. Miette Meets Irvin [1:25]
27. Inside the Dream [6:57]
28. Escape [9:09]

Elbert Ventura

With The City of Lost Children, their second full-length feature, French filmmakers Jean Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro cemented their claim to a distinct authorial style. An elaborate dystopian vision with a fairy tale sensibility, The City of Lost Children imagines a resolutely sui generis world of freak-show grotesques, Dickensian orphans, and Rube Goldbergian convolutions. Revealing a bottomless capacity for invention, Jeunet and Caro tell their story with ruthless precision and flamboyance. As with their feature debut, Delicatessen, Jeunet and Caro's follow-up betrays their roots in animation. The baroque production design and darkly epic scope inspired comparisons to Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, and Blade Runner; a less cited, but equally apt, reference point is the Coen brothers: like the Coens, Jeunet and Caro practice a cinema of consummate and self-conscious manipulation. From the eerily airless mise-en-scene to the archetypal familiarity of the characters, the filmmakers' exacting style is tightly controlled and leaves little room for spontaneity. It's a modus operandi that sparks debate: the movie received mixed reviews upon its release, with some critics accusing Jeunet and Caro of being soulless smart alecks interested only in the machinery, and not the humanity, of film. While not unfounded, the observation is also incomplete, failing to account for the signal pleasures of succumbing to the whims of master raconteurs. ~ Elbert Ventura, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Ticky Holgado  Actor 
Marc Caro  Actor 
Mapi Galan  Actor 
Rufus  Actor 
Hong-Mai Thomas  Actor 
Serge Merlin  Actor 
Francois Hadji Lazaro  Actor 
Briac Barthelemy  Actor 
Lorella Cravotta  Actor 
Joseph Lucien  Actor 
Nane Germon  Actor 
Jean-Louis Trintignant  Actor 
Ham-Chau Luong  Actor 
Cris Huerta  Actor 
Angelo Badalamenti  Composer (Music Score) 
Marc Caro  Director 
Marc Caro  Screenwriter 
Claudie Ossard  Producer 
Gilles Adrien  Screenwriter 
Jean-Pierre Jeunet  Director 
Jean-Pierre Jeunet  Screenwriter 
Guillaume Laurant  Screenwriter 
Ron Perlman  Actor 
Daniel Emilfork  Actor 
Judith Vittet  Actor 
Dominique Pinon  Actor 
Dominique Pinon  Actor 
Jean-Claude Dreyfus  Actor 
Genevieve Brunet  Actor 

Country: France,Germany,Spain