The City of Lost Children

La Cité des enfants perdus (or The City of Lost Children) is a French fantasy/comedy film by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet released in 1995. The film is stylistically related to the previous and subsequent Jeunet films, Delicatessen and Amélie.

Related Topics:
French - Film - Marc Caro - Jean-Pierre Jeunet - 1995 - Delicatessen - Amélie

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The plot revolves around a mad scientist, Krank, who lives off the coast of a surreal Dickensian French city in an old oil rig and has been kidnapping children in order to study and extract their dreams, to supplement his own inability to dream. Because he cannot dream, he has become prematurely old.

Related Topics:
Mad scientist - Dickensian - Oil rig - Dream

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Krank is actually a genetically created man, with superior intelligence. He was created by an Inventor who also created five clones (the Inventor and the clones are all played by Dominique Pinon), a wife, and a migraine-ridden brain in a jar named Irvin to talk to. Irvin's voice is supplied by Jean-Louis Trintignant.

Related Topics:
Dominique Pinon - Migraine - Jean-Louis Trintignant

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The movie begins when a sideshow strongman named One (played by Ron Perlman) witnesses an orphan he cares for, named Denree, being kidnapped. He sets out to find his "little brother", with help of a nine-year-old street urchin girl named Miette. Denree turns out to be the perfect kid that Krank has been searching for.

Related Topics:
Strongman - Ron Perlman - Orphan

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Krank employs a sinister cult of blind men called "Cyclops" to kidnap the children. In return for giving up their sight, the cult's adherents are given a mechanical "third eye" and a device which makes their hearing unnaturally sensitive (much to the discomfort of one Cyclops who hears Denree chomping at his food).

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Also in the film are a pair of Siamese twins known as "The Octopus". They train orphans (including Miette) to steal, much like Fagin in Oliver Twist. Annoyed when Miette, their best thief, runs off with One, they try to destroy them. They attempt to get help from their former sideshow employer, whose trained fleas can inject poison into a person's scalp, inducing the victim to commit acts of violence when the flea-master plays his barrel organ.

Related Topics:
Siamese twins - Fagin - Oliver Twist - Sideshow - Barrel organ

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