The City of Lost Children

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)

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)

The visuals (they are great!) of The City of Lost Children look like a cross between Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and let's say... Pitof. Beautifully stylized images create the right atmosphere that a grim fantasy tale should have. What brought the film down was the super weird and super uninteresting script. There was hardly anything going on in it, damn it! And when something was happening, it was so stupid it was shameful. In addition to all this, I was annoyed by the character of the little "cute" brother, who was always eating something and then burping... and the cloned idiots also didn't make it any better. At least the well-acted duo of Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet showed up in the lead roles and saved what they could. I give it a two and a half (I almost didn't finish the film), which I round up (for sticking it out in the end, and for the final youthful and aging scene). (13/06/2010)

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)