The City of Lost Children (1995)

A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.
Cast and Information
Directed By: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro
Written By: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume Laurant, Marc Caro, Gilles Adrien
Starring: Ron Perlman, Mathieu Kassovitz, Dominique Pinon, Rufus, Ticky Holgado, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Daniel Emilfork, Serge Merlin, Mireille Mossé, Judith Vittet, Geneviève Brunet, Odile Mallet
Genres: Drama, Sci-fi, Fantasy, Adventure
Country: Belgium, France, Germany, Spain
Where to Stream
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The City of Lost Children belongs to 50 collections
1. Surreal (collaborative - 47 stars)
2. Certified weird (collaborative: moderated by Dreamer - 47 stars)
3. Dystopia (collaborative: moderated by Nouilles - 29 stars)
4. AAA: Empire's five star movies (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 24 stars)
5. IMDb Top 250 Complete (collaborative: moderated by Jorg - 23 stars)
6. Intellectual Sci-Fi (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 17 stars)
7. Christmas (collaborative: moderated by td888 - 16 stars)
8. 16 Strangest Movies Everyone Should See - tasteofcinema.com (collaborative: moderated by neurophate - 10 stars)
9. What Follows Inception? (collaborative: moderated by paulofilmo - 9 stars)
10. Fantastic and surreal (public: juandr - 9 stars)
11. THE WORLDWIDE CELLULOID MASSACRE: Recommended (collaborative: moderated by edkrak - 6 stars)
12. Positive Psychology Films (collaborative - 6 stars)
13. Top 3000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 5 stars)
14. Wikipedia's list of dystopian films (collaborative: moderated by ND Geek - 4 stars)
15. Twins (collaborative: moderated by djross - 3 stars)
16. Angelo Badalamenti (composer) (collaborative: moderated by djross - 3 stars)
17. Directed collaboratively (collaborative: moderated by djross - 3 stars)
18. Djross science fiction movie of the year (public: djross - 3 stars)
19. Mad Scientists! (collaborative: moderated by miss jesus - 2 stars)
20. Cloning (collaborative: moderated by djross - 2 stars)
21. Cannes 1995 Official Selection (collaborative: moderated by djross - 1 star)
22. Sound Design (collaborative: moderated by paulofilmo - 1 star)
23. French director (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 1 star)
24. Air France (collaborative: moderated by submor)
25. Darius Khondji, Cinematographer (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed)
26. Art Fantasy Oddities (collaborative: moderated by Fenius)
27. noike/caffes Topp 100 filmer! (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson)
28. 1995 Wide Releases U.S. (collaborative: moderated by Roman_Herbom)
29. Piero Scaruffi's list of great films (collaborative)
30. Steampunk (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub)
31. Djross seen at the cinema (public: djross)
32. Movies to See (public: gsb)
33. Pendientes (public: juglar103)
34. My DVDs (public: Kavu)
35. Want to see, available on MUF (public: nauru)
36. Owned (DVD) (public: bizarre_eye)
37. 1995: Year in Review (public: polanski28)
38. My DVD Collection (public: balseiros)
39. Peliculas que tengo (public: escarta)
40. Tekrar İzlesem de olur (public: tumu90)
41. To See (public: Unsaintly)
42. 90lar (public: Ozancan)
43. 90s fantasy (public: kikifas)
44. Remembered Films (public: JanaMarie)
45. Djross French feature films I've seen (public: djross)
46. Ayıla Bayıla İzlenen Filmler (public: Ozancan)
47. seen (public: gamzeknc)
48. Anna BNW (public: Ceekay19)
49. C-1990 (public: cantahta)
50. Unrealism (public: escd)
Browse the full list of collections
Stars | User | Rating | |
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Spunkie | 92 99th |
I don't know if it is appropriate to call T.C.O.L.C. surreal. It is more of an extrapolated fable lost inside industrialism. Jeunet&Caro alamet-i farika laying the eggs for the last time together. Beauty of ugliness.
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BattleToad | 95 97th |
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has a wonderful ability to make films original, humorous, and most of all, emotionally engaging. The City of Lost Children is a terrific and artistic work with dozens of unique characters, all of which are very well acted. The film evokes such an array of emotions and thoughts that it simply must not be overlooked. Awesome!
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Stripy | 92 94th |
Jeunet and Caro create another grotesque, dark and cruel world, where love is hard to be found. Outstanding acting, great photography, superb soundtrack. And above it all, an amazing story about people(some good, some bad), searching happiness - may that for them be love, power and money or 'just' dreams.
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doctor7 | 83 79th |
Very interesting film indeed. Great camera work and expressive set design combined with over the top acting compliment the story very well making for a fantastic film. Ron Perlman is especially impressive as he doesn't speak any french!
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frederic_g54 | 8 77th |
If Jeunet and Guillermo del Toro decide to make a film together, I'll be the 1st in line to see it. I'm not gonna debate the negative aspects of this film (not that many in the end), this film is very special and doesn't deserve any bashing. Ron Perlman did a great job, but it's really Judith Vittet who plays Miette that outshines everyone. The story is dark and weird but also funny and sweet. I'd love to see more films like this, sparkling with originality and ideas...
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Mentaculus | 68 48th |
Really, really hard to describe, let alone digest. There are great ideas lurking in here, but it may just be too goofy to be taken on its merits. A child's fairytale nightmare on Red Bull.
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JMBosch | 88 86th |
Whimsical and delightful... as well as creepy. Some great SFX for the time, and the setting is wonderful. Besides, a Jeunet & Caro-fueled Dominique Pinon and Ron Perlman in the same film? I'm sold.
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SirStuckey | 90 94th |
I love the fact that if I ever think that I'll never see another original movie idea, I can just watch a Jean-Pierre Jeunet film and see something I've never seen before. He's like some amazing combination of Tim Burton, Wes Anderson, and Terry Gilliam only the actors are all speaking French.This movie is awesome and anyone who believes movies are an art should watch it and every other movie he has directed and feel smug about their cinematic ideologies.
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Rufam | 75 72nd |
A visually imaginative and detailed film if there ever was one. Jeunet's mise en scène is something to drop your jaws at, as is the film's carefully built texture, its twisted settings and outlandish characters. And despite the filmmakers' best efforts to add emotional context (it's a film where a lot of kids stare around looking cute, after all) this is a picture so absorbed in its own (creepy, wondrous) world I found myself shut off half of the times. It's a marvel but it can be alienating.
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Paxton | 86 95th |
Of all the dream movies I've seen, this is the most dream like. And every movie is improved with the addition of Dominique Pinon. This movies got seven of him.
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backwardsuit | 77 72nd |
Enchanting & naively nightmarish fairytale. Some neat ideas that mostly come through in the wonderfully creative visuals. Great dreamy atmosphere but uneven with narrative style & substance. There's definitely some genius in this but it comes across as whimsical & lacks the emotional attachment it needs to make satisfactory sense. Jeunet & Caro are brilliant artists but not quite up there with Gilliam & del Toro as storytellers. Gorgeous Badalamenti score almost made up for the clumsy narrative.
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willofgaia | 80 43rd |
Visually stunning, but very rarely has something going on beyond that
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Kojiless | 92 95th |
I shudder to imagine the amount of drugs used by the staff in creating this film.
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HalfJapanese | 90 90th |
Fantastic, escapist and hypnotic, it's a much more interesting film than Delicatessen was plot-wise.
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1 | Skenkere | 77 78th |
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Jeunet puts forth a really good fantasy/fairy tale-ish movie that's unarguably unique.
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caiman | 84 75th |
This is a movie that when I tell people about it, I say, "If you tend to like movies on a purely visual level, you'll LOVE this one." And it's true. Though the story is only mediocre to decent, it's the quirky visual style that puts City of the Lost Children above and beyond the rest. It's so bizarre and interesting that I can't help but love it.
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nilkynarfy | 85 86th |
You should absolutely believe the hype, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I did Delicatessen, though it's still a very impressive film. It scooches just a bit over my tolerated level of cinematic excess limit, but only just a bit.
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Anomaly | 80 75th |
Wonderfully inventive and whimsical. Relies a bit too much on contrivance to be truly spectacular, but the humor, design and visuals are a real treat.
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prowler | 72 72nd |
Fucking gorgeous. The steampunk design and colourful cinematography in this are some of the most original and insane/beautiful you'll ever see. The film feels like an adventure game, a la The Longest Journey or Syberia - unsurprisingly, it was adapted into a game. A hell of a ride.
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andayb | 75 86th |
jenuet and caro's unique vision is extraordinary. it's quite outside the mainstream of its age, very avangarde even comparing it to the likes of tim burton. the attention to detail in set design, photography and the general atmosphere is excellent. the real stars of the show are the incredible cast, a veritable freak show coming together for this dark fairy tale. one of a kind experience.
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hehejaja | 70 57th |
A mysterious and elegant painting of a strange, dark and scabby world. The sticky atmosphere created is seductive, the various distinctive characters fascinating, and the ongoing sentimentality delightful. While it may not manage to attain a profoundly moving and throught-provoking climax, the film is filled with fascinating images, as well as ideas.
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Obdurate | 85 80th |
It's um... interesting. It's definitely completely out there and that makes it fascinating. The set designs are astounding and there are some fantastic ideas in there but like some others have said... it's quite goofy. It's nice to see a movie with such good ideas not taking itself completely seriously and I like ridiculous things, but sometimes it goes too far and you can't get the connection you need. But you need to see it because it's totally original and beautiful.
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Bmunise | 95 80th |
My third Jeunet and by no means an average one. The designers really pulled all the punches here and the acting is everything you'd expect of a Jeunet film. Dominique Pinon is given quite a bit of screen time and he's a joy in every second of it. I'm not sure how this compares to Amelie, but I don't think it quite edges out Micmacs.
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FrederikA | 100 99th |
Jawdroppingly beautiful and deliciously dark. In my opinion it's the pinnacle of lyrical moviemaking.
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DavidBlast | 60 54th |
Whilst being amongst the most visually inventive and beautiful films in cinema, the overall feel is that of it's plot: You're witnessing the nightmare of a child. The result is a quirky, moody and largely uncomfortable film. It is a film d'art, and an absolute must-see for any cinephile, but that doesn't mean you're going to like it.
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hellboy76 | 74 90th |
Really compelling visuals. I wasn't always sure what was happening but it was definitely happening with style.
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Jimmy Suede | 85 85th |
I literally did not know what to expect with this film. I didn't even realize beforehand it was French, with Ron Perlman starring and a (seemingly) Native American on the cover. What a pleasant surprise; this movie is a visual treat. I enjoyed the odd steam-punk fairy-tale of a story, even if it didn't sink very deep for me.
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1 | favery | 20 1st |
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Bioshock 2: The Movie but the plot's even more convoluted and the Big Daddy's a useless babbling crybaby that speaks French like a Spanish cow.
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Average Percentile 63.26% from 3149 Ratings | ![]() |