The City of Lost Children (or La Cite Des Enfants Perdus) is powerful, bizare filme by the makers of Delicatessen. It is a beautifuly grim fairy tale about a dark and twisted French province. There are orfan slaves, siamese twins, clones, an organ grinder, and a disembodied brain. But at the same time there is so much more. The plight of the children to survive is the driving force behind this, leading to a remarkable friendship between a young girl named Miette (Judith Vittet) and an "oaf" of sorts apropriately name One (Ron Pearlman). Miette and her fellow orphans are "collectors" of "lost" things (they steal) and sell their findings to a pair of very strange Siamese twins. They save as much money as they can to survive but still are the lost of France. Of course, all the while, trouble is rising in another location. This of course, introduces the clones and the disembodied brain. And here the central theme is that of a man who cannot dream. A scientist by trade (or design) he discovers a way to take teh dreams of children and experience them himself. Of course a frightened child will only provide a nightmare so the search continues for a child without fear of him. Where would this child lie, coincidentally, it is the younger brother of One. But if I were to carry on like this, you would then know the whole story and never have to watch it. But now, onto why this is the a film worth remarking upon.

This film, possibly the most visually astounding I have ever seen, put me in complete awe as I watched it. I remember putting the Tape in the VCR and I remember sitting down on the floor after turning off the lights. And then, as the credits began my own livingroom began to fade away, the floor I was on turned from carpet to cold brick, and the air acquired this stong, damp, musty feel. The movie was so intensive that it was consuming my entire realm of understanding. Not to belittle either piece but the only other thing that has been that inclusive in sensory over-ride was Myst (a fantastic Computer Game). But all was not lost, I was now living in the dank warf town somewhere in France. Here I watched as One's little brother (usually called Little One) was kidnapped and One worked side by side with Miette to retrive him from the evil Krank (the dream stealer). But again, I digress from my main topic, the imagery and power of the film.

The whole movie is dark, but not Crow dark. It's more of a fantastical dark than a gothic dark. The camera work (thanks to Darius Khondji) is so incredible that it left me drop jawed through the entire thing (see the flea clip above). The movement of the camera from scene to scene was incredibly fluid. But what really got me was the intricacy, as in the clip above. The attention to incredibly minute detail was astounding. Every detail, no matter how small was attended to, and if it could not be filmed, it was digitized. And then there was the digitized graphics, so flawless that you could hardly tell that they were digitized.

But aside from the camera work and the Art of the film itself was the pure delight of the characters. They were all so alive and quirky. Each of the clones (all played by the same actor) had a unique personality that was easilly distinguished amidst their similarities. Ron Pearlman was wonderfully sullen and soft hearted (I didn't know he could speak French, but since I don't, I can't judge how good his was) and while Miette fell in love with One, he showed such gentle concern and caring for the poor lost child. Judith Vittet, only nine at the time was amazingly talented. She was very mature as a child and caried herself well next to the towering One. She never once looked small.

All in all, I think this was a fantastic movie and I look forward to the chance to see it on a larger scale format as soon as possible.