The City of Lost Children

The City of Lost Children is mandatory viewing for everyone who says Tim Burton is weird. This extremely strange fantasy will either completely captivate you or you will stare at it with your mouth open and it will leave you with nothing. I’m in the latter group of viewers, just as in the case of Delicatessen. (20/04/2003)

Despite the very flimsy script, the film completely captivated me with its audiovisual adaptations and characters, especially the excellent creations of Ron Perlman and the cute adult Judith Vittet. It is as if Caro and Jeunet had distilled Burton's fairy-tale gloom and mixed it with Terry Gilliam's eccentricity and existential chill. All this in a strange curve that very much bears their seal. The fact that The City of Lost Children looks familiar and yet is original is sufficient reason for me give the film a fifth star. (18/09/2008)

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro have made a visually beautiful film. It has something of the industrial feel, but it also has elements reminiscent of "Oliver Twist"; it's mature, yet presented as a fairy tale, where Dominique Pinon excels above all. He also demonstrates here not only captivating comedic abilities. Ron Perlman does what I would expect from him. But he does it well. (11/08/2017)

"He may be big, but he's not an adult." Caro and Jenuet weren't lacking self-reflection. In The City of Lost Children, the pair basically just upgraded from one building in Delicatessen to an entire city. Otherwise, it works with it in practically the same way. The harbor is a wonderfully structured multi-level space, full of bridges, staircases, canals, docks, crossings, pipes, sewer hatches, etc., with some dangerous secret (like a crazy diver living underwater in the harbor's underbelly) or adventure lurking around every corner. In this, for example, it often brings to mind the notion of the old city as a playground familiar from Foglar's books or non-linear video games like BioShock. For 1995, the film contains breathtaking special effects, amazing nonsense ideas, and absolutely uncompromising sets and costumes. Except that vegans, animal activists, and radical opponents of pedophilia will vomit out of the window, to be sure. (02/08/2020)

A film that should be called a classic. In terms of the plot, it’s not revolutionary, but stylistically it’s an absolutely stunning and flawless fantasy that takes only the best of Terry Gilliam and manages to present it in an original and delectable way. A film about the importance of a child's view of the world, supported by loads of exceptional directorial ideas and the acting skills of Perlman the monkey or Pinon the chameleon. Harder to appreciate for its psychological austerity and seemingly ungraspable for its fidelity to classical narrative, but otherwise 100% appealing and intoxicating; the work of a master. (14/08/2017)