Dreamy `Lost Children' enchants
In their 1991 film, Delicatessen , Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro demonstrated that a smartly bizarre sense of humor and an obsessive devotion to detail can carry a French cannibal flick into arthouses across America. Their new film, The City of Lost Children , explores a different universe from that in Delicatessen and comes out looking quite lovely.
Partners since 1980 in a variety of short film and animation projects, the vision-driven duo have established a thread through their first two features. Each of the films is compelled by a singular image; just as Faulkner claimed to write The Sound and the Fury based upon one mental picture of "a girl with muddy drawers," you can imagine these creators obsessed with an idea and driven to discover everything about it.
The story opens hazily, with a fascinating dream sequence which takes us into a laboratory where Krank, the soulless creation of a departed scientist, tries to steal the dreams of kidnapped children. To assist him, he has the Clones, his six genetically identical (but mentally inferior) brothers, Miss Bismuth (whom the Clones address as "Mother") and Irvin, a large disembodied brain with a camera for an eye and a forthright disposition.
Unfortunately, the children whose dreams Krank steals have nothing but nightmares because they are all afraid of him. So he goes on desperately, aging prematurely because he has never dreamed.
Meanwhile, circus strongman One (played by Ron Perlman, the bestial half in the TV show "Beauty and the Beast") searches for his adopted little brother Denree in a dingy seaside city. He has been kidnapped, of course, and taken to Krank's offshore rig. One enlists the help of street urchin Miette, who leads a band of juvenile thieves in the service of "the Octopus," a pair of Fagan-like Siamese twin sisters. There's also a mercenary army of priestlike Cyclopes who seem to be the middlemen for Krank.
Sound confusing? Amazingly enough, Jeunet and Caro pull it off with a minimum of disorientation. And I didn't even mention Marcello, the Flea-Tamer or the Diver, who are all central to the plot.
But in the meantime, we're consistently dazzled by the beauty of the scenery (Darius Khondji's cinematography is amazing) and the special effects, which aren't piled up haphazardly to distract you from a lame story. Instead, they meld into the background of an alternate universe of haunting poetry.
The filmmakers cite Fellini as an influence and quickly nod to La Strada in One's first scene. They certainly found a remarkably distinct cast, also reminiscent of the Italian master.
All the actors are convincing. Perlman, who looks like a beefcake version of Tony Roberts, is charming and sweet as the devoted brute One. Daniel Emilfork (in a role written for him) plays Krank, an empty body so desperate to feel he asks Irvin, the floating brain, to do it for him.
Other stars of the film are costumer and part-time fashion designer Jean-Paul Gaultier and composer Angelo Badalamenti ("Twin Peaks").
Jeunet and Caro create a fantasy realm which relates to the world of Grimm fairy tales and to our own. They keep us enthralled as the surreal meets the bizarre. The City of Lost Children pulls you into another reality. It's not a wicked world; rather, it's one you might find in a pleasant dream.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the February 9, 1996 issue.
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