Library Movie Pick of the Week
I've partnered with The La Crosse Public Library to bring you "The Library Movie Pick of the Week." Each week, I'll review a different film from the library's collection with a direct link to their online catalogue system, so reserving it will be simple and convenient.
Fabulous French fantasy filled with eye-popping visuals and clever invention
March 5, 2010
By Jimmy Gillman
City of Lost Children, The
Sony Pictures Classics; 1995; 112 minutes; R, for violence and adult themes; Directed by Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet; Starring: Ron Perlman, Daniel Emilfork, Judith Vittet, Dominique Pinon and Jean-Claude Dreyfus; Screenwriter(s): Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro and Gilles Adrien
GRADE: A-
A unique, thought-provoking story set on a fascinatingly conceived cinematic landscape is what viewers will get with “The City of Lost Children,” the inventive adult fantasy from the French filmmaking team of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, the talented duo behind 1991’s carnivorous satire, “Delicatessen.”
Together, Jeunet and Caro have created a visionary and wholly original universe of eye-popping proportions; something author Charles Dickens might have envisioned had he lived today. It’s a one-of-a-kind concoction, a fractured fairytale so loaded with ideas and dense in content that it practically demands being seen more than once in order to fully appreciate (and understand) everything it has to offer.
Virtually every frame in “The City of Lost Children” features astonishing sights and sounds, with many ingenious characters and mechanical contraptions crowding the screen from end to end. But it’s more than a special effects extravaganza as Jeunet and Caro’s filmmaking and storytelling styles form the very definition of mis-en-scene, merged with a visually-driven narrative that speaks volumes without anyone ever uttering a word—it could almost be shown as a silent film without weakening its ability to captivate an audience.
That cinematic palette enriches the story, a tall and compelling tale constructed around three main characters—a mad scientist who kidnaps young children in order to steal their dreams, a young but wise street urchin whose brother has been kidnapped, and the good-natured circus strongman (Ron Perlman of “Hellboy” fame) she convinces to help her free the abducted youngsters.
The rescuers form one of film’s odder odd couples, but together they become a tandem moviegoers will want to root for, a pair of bona fide underdogs seemingly pulled directly from the pages of some 19th century novel. Yet despite these decidedly antique trappings, their plight and quest for freedom is timeless and of universal merit, which prevents the characters from ever becoming offhanded, merely symbolic or mere abstractions.
Filmed entirely on soundstages, with many scenes shot in what must surely be one of the world’s largest water tanks, the surreal surroundings conjured up by Jeunet and Caro (who also served as the film’s art directors) rival the best interior conceptions ever constructed.
With an original screenplay penned by the directors and a look and feel all its own, “The City of Lost Children” is much more than eye-candy; it’s a gripping work of fiction with an all too real backbone that will make viewers sit up straight and take notice of its unusual point of view and persuasive action.
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