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Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki

Original title: La cité des enfants perdus
  • 19951995
  • K-16K-16
  • 1h 52m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
69K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
6,438
721
Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
Home Video Trailer from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Play trailer2:22
1 Video
99+ Photos
DramaFantasySci-Fi

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.

IMDb RATING
7.5/10
69K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
6,438
721
  • Directors
    • Marc Caro
    • Jean-Pierre Jeunet
  • Writers
    • Gilles Adrien(dialogue)
    • Jean-Pierre Jeunet(additional dialogue)
    • Marc Caro
  • Stars
    • Ron Perlman
    • Daniel Emilfork
    • Judith Vittet
Top credits
  • Directors
    • Marc Caro
    • Jean-Pierre Jeunet
  • Writers
    • Gilles Adrien(dialogue)
    • Jean-Pierre Jeunet(additional dialogue)
    • Marc Caro
  • Stars
    • Ron Perlman
    • Daniel Emilfork
    • Judith Vittet
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 266User reviews
    • 61Critic reviews
    • 73Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 5 wins & 14 nominations

    Videos1

    The City of Lost Children
    Trailer 2:22
    The City of Lost Children

    Photos113

    Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Daniel Emilfork in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Ron Perlman, Geneviève Brunet, Daniel Emilfork, Odile Mallet, and Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Ron Perlman, Geneviève Brunet, Daniel Emilfork, Odile Mallet, and Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Ron Perlman and Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)
    Judith Vittet in Kadonneiden lasten kaupunki (1995)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ron Perlman
    Ron Perlman
    • One
    Daniel Emilfork
    Daniel Emilfork
    • Krank
    Judith Vittet
    • Miette
    Dominique Pinon
    Dominique Pinon
    • Le scaphandrier…
    Jean-Claude Dreyfus
    Jean-Claude Dreyfus
    • Marcello
    Geneviève Brunet
    • La Pieuvre
    • (as Genevieve Brunet)
    Odile Mallet
    • La Pieuvre
    Mireille Mossé
    • Mademoiselle Bismuth
    Serge Merlin
    • Gabriel Marie (Cyclops Leader)
    Rufus
    Rufus
    • Peeler
    Ticky Holgado
    Ticky Holgado
    • Ex-Acrobat
    Joseph Lucien
    • Denree
    Mapi Galán
    • Lune
    • (as Mapi Galan)
    Briac Barthélémy
    • Bottle
    • (as Briac Barthelemy)
    Pierre-Quentin Faesch
    • Pipo
    Alexis Pivot
    • Tadpole
    Léo Rubion
    • Jeannot
    • (as Leo Rubion)
    Guillaume Billod-Morel
    • Child
    • Directors
      • Marc Caro
      • Jean-Pierre Jeunet
    • Writers
      • Gilles Adrien(dialogue)
      • Jean-Pierre Jeunet(additional dialogue)
      • Marc Caro
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      To achieve the slightly skewed color scheme of the movie, the actors were made up in white face and the color palette corrected until they were flesh-toned.
    • Goofs
      The words from The Original that Miette remembers in flashback (after she receives Uncle Irvin's dream message) differ slightly from what The Original actually said, although the point of the message is still the same.
    • Quotes

      Miette: When you're born in the gutter you end up in the port.

    • Alternate versions
      There are two different audio tracks for the film - one is the original French language version and another is an English language dub.
    • Connections
      Featured in Les enfants de la cité perdue (1995)
    • Soundtracks
      Who Will Take Your Dreams Away
      Music by Angelo Badalamenti

      Lyrics by Marianne Faithfull

      Performed by Marianne Faithfull

    User reviews266

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    9/10
    a feast for the imagination
    I can't help myself: I adore this film. I freely accept that it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea; if pushed, I might even accept that it's not perfect. But there's no film I love more, or more enjoy re-watching. One caveat though: I've seen both the subtitled and the dubbed print, and the English dubbing frankly comes close to ruining the movie. Ron Perlman dubs himself and is fine, and some of the other adult English actors are perfectly OK, though they tend to be blander than the French originals. But most of the children are terrible, and with her own voice it's Judith Vittet's extraordinary performance (all the more extraordinary considering she was nine at the time) that helps give "La Cité" the genuine emotional centre that some viewers don't feel it has.

    But I'll come back to that. In any version, at least Jeunet and Caro's astonishing visual flair and artistry come over. I can't think of a film that has such a concentration of memorable shots - time and again, especially watching on DVD with a freeze-frame facility, you realize how many beautiful compositions Jean-Pierre Jeunet gives us: though the cast of characters could easily fill a freak show, and the sets are dark and quite unglamorous in themselves, the cinematography is gorgeous and the mise-en-scène often strangely elegant. It has a look all of its own, perfect for a modern, urban fairy-tale. The music too is gorgeous, one of the finest scores by David Lynch's regular musical collaborator, Angelo Badalamenti.

    "Fairy tale" is I think the best generic starting-point for this film, so long as you think Grimm rather than Disney. (Unlike "Delicatessen", it isn't really a comedy, though it has comic elements). And the plot works according to its own logic, even if the progression from scene to scene is occasionally a bit lumpy or obscure. Krank (the astonishing Daniel Emilfork), grown prematurely old because he cannot dream, uses a cult of blind, messianic preachers to abduct children from a decaying industrial port and steal their dreams - but they have only nightmares, and Krank falls ever deeper into despair and evil. It's up to the orphan pickpocket Miette and a none-too-brainy circus strongman, One, to put a stop to him. This rich idea is elaborated with all sorts of visual conceits and eccentric characters - Jeunet mounts, for example, a couple of astonishing sequences in which chains of unlikely effects proceed from the smallest of causes - but never at the expense of the central relationship of One and Miette.

    In a sense Miette, like Krank, has grown old too fast: the orphaned street-children of this city are savvy and unsentimental, and never seem to have had a childhood; meanwhile there's something deeply childish, in various ways, about most of the adults. Sensitively directed and never overacting, Judith Vittet's Miette gradually thaws, and Ron Perlman brings a lot of sympathy and pathos to what could have been an oafish, cartoonish role: Jeunet gives plenty of space and subtlety to their gradually-developing friendship, and dares to do what I suspect no English director would dare to do at the moment, which is to make their relationship innocently sexualized. Neither of them is really a grown-up, but it's still an extremely risky move, exploring the first stirrings of pre-pubescent sexuality while trying not to be exploitative or prurient. I do think the film pulls it off, though I can imagine some viewers feeling distinctly uncomfortable with it. For me it's one of the most convincingly unsentimental and nuanced (if mannered) portrayals of childhood I've ever seen on the screen, and there is real compassion and tenderness along the way, as well as some darker twists and turns.

    It's a film that rewards analysis if you're prepared to surrender to its strange world with its strange rules. But it rewards the senses and the emotions too - and it radiates love of cinema as the perfect medium for sophisticated fantasy. One elderly actress who appears towards the end (Nane Germon) acted - as Jeunet's DVD commentary points out - in Jean Cocteau's "La Belle et la Bête" about fifty years earlier (there are, by the way, distinct references to the Beauty and the Beast story here), and "La Cité des enfants perdus" deserves to join that film as one of the classic cinematic fairy-tales. Pity about Marianne Faithfull over the closing credits, though!
    helpful•80
    5
    • Jeremy-93
    • Jan 24, 2003

    FAQ2

    • Why do One and Miette need the map through the minefield if they easily avoid the mines with a rowboat?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 25, 1996 (Finland)
    • Countries of origin
      • France
      • Germany
      • Spain
      • Belgium
      • United States
    • Official site
      • Pictures, Movie clips, complete movie & cast information.
    • Languages
      • French
      • Cantonese
    • Also known as
      • The City of Lost Children
    • Filming locations
      • Studios 91 Arpajon, Saint-Germain-les-Arpajon, Essonne, France
    • Production companies
      • Constellation
      • Lumière Pictures
      • Le Studio Canal+
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $18,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $1,738,611
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $34,348
      • Dec 17, 1995
    • Gross worldwide
      • $1,781,465
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 52 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • DTS
      • Dolby SR

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