The City of Lost Children (Cité des Enfants Perdus, La) (Shock Records) (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio & Animation-Costume Design Menu Audio-Production Sketches Trailer-The End Of Violence, Cookie's Fortune
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	107:33 (Case: 112)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Marc Caro Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Studio Distributor	Shock Entertainment	Starring	Ron Perlman Daniel Emilfork Judith Vittet Dominique Pinon Jean-Claude Dreyfus Geneviève Brunet Odile Mallet Mireille Mossé Serge Merlin Rufus Ticky Holgado Joseph Lucien Mapi Galán
Case	Amaray-Opaque-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Angelo Badalamenti

     Imagine this. You've just awoken from an extraordinary dream. Everything was strange but real in the way that only dreams can be. It all sits, resting in your subconscious, fully formed - with atmosphere, texture, form, light and substance. You turn to someone and say, "I had the most amazing dream." And as you try to explain it, you watch it drift away in a fragmented mist, dissolving under the weight of "reality" into a vignette of vague shapes and ill-formed words, until you trail off mid-sentence and weakly say, "hmm, I guess you had to be there."

     Such is the experience of attempting to review La Cité des Enfants Perdus, the strangely beautiful, exquisitely disturbing fairy tale by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director who has also given the world Delicatessen and Amélie.

     The land of dreams and possibilities is a dangerous place where the glistening can become the sinister and the impossible is just the beginning, and we are so totally immersed into that world through this film that our only hope is to abandon all attempts to rationalise what we are seeing, and allow it to wrap around the corners of our mind as we do in a morphean state of slumber.

     The film begins with the incredibly cherubic child, Denree (Joseph Lucien), enchanted with the sight of Santa Claus climbing down the chimney in his bedroom. All is a veritable picture of European Yuletide splendour. Santa is soft of face and warm of eye, brimming with all the bonhomie of the season. But then, another pair of legs heralds the advent of another Santa, then another, and another, and another, until the room is brimming with a swirling vortex of Santas who are distorting and melting into something more sinister entirely. And something tells us we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto!

     Slowly, almost subconsciously, we become aware of the other protagonists of the piece. Denree, we learn, is the dearly loved baby brother of a simple circus strong man, known as One (Ron Perlman). There have been a string of kidnappings of little children in this portside town, and we see the perpetually hungry Denree being lured away from safety by the temptation of a dangling toffee apple. Where are the children being taken and who is taking them? They are being taken by the Cyclops, a fanatical group of zealots who have plucked out their eyes in order to "see," and dispatched to a floating denizen where Krank, the created monster who possesses no soul because he cannot dream, steals the children's dreams in the desire to arrest his premature aging. His companions are a series of narcoleptic clones (all played by Dominique Pinon), a teeny but malignant Mademoiselle Bismuth (Mireille Mossé) and a disembodied brain with a perpetual migraine named Irvin (voiced by Jean-Louis Trintignant).

     How will a simple-minded soul like One ever manage to overcome such a complex cast of enemies to rescue his brother? By teaming up with the resourceful leader of a gang of orphan urchins, the strong-minded lass, Miette (Judith Vittet). Although struggling with problems of her own with the wretched Octopus, (sinister Siamese twins played to the hilt by Geneviève Brunet & Odile Mallet) who have a Fagin-type enterprise of waif-based theft going on, the remarkable Miette teams her wit with One's brute strength to forge a powerful and touching partnership.

     Confused yet? Like I said, it's like trying to describe a dream. So perhaps I'd better let you find out for yourself about Marcello and his amazing trained flea, the tattooist, the mystical diver and the incredible serendipities of circumstances that assist our heroes in their quest.

     If you remain uncritical, in the sense that you don't try to make sense of the plot, but rather allow it the unqualified logic of dreams, you will be treated to one of the most extraordinary cinematic experiences it's possible to have. You will probably be left marvelling at the imagination required to deliver such a film to celluloid in the first place. Perhaps you will also revel in the almost Fellini-esque imagery; dramatic camera angles; intense, low key lighting and extraordinary colours, created, apparently, by painting all the performers' skin in white makeup, then balancing the cameras to render an accurate skin tone, resulting in a strange, saturated and surreal atmosphere to the colour palette. You may be entertained by the comedic setups and circumstances, or enchanted by the quieter, gentler interplays between Miette and One.

     The City of Lost Children might even become one of your favourite films. Just hope that no one ever asks you to explain it!

Video

     The transfer is unforgivably presented as a pan & scan 1.33:1 presentation, which is a total insult, since the R1 version is presented in the correct widescreen format. I will never understand why the powers that (apparently shouldn't) be deem it fit to present us with these chopped up versions of classics when there is obviously a correct transfer print available elsewhere. I know it's all been said before, but we should protest, protest, protest at this kind of thing!

     My tantrum having now been vented, I can concede that overall, aside from the scandalous aspect ratio, otherwise, the transfer is reasonably good. The detail is generally excellent, contrast levels and depth very acceptable and, though low level noise is present, it is by no means as bad as many other discs I've seen. In a low key film such as this, shadow detail is paramount, and most of the time, this disc delivers. Grain levels are fine and the print is overall sharp and clear.

     As previously discussed, the colouration of the original stock was highly manipulated to deliver an otherworld atmosphere. This has translated well onto this disc, and it maintains its moody character while still containing strong colours like red without too much trouble.

     There were few MPEG artefacts to distract the viewer. There was evidence of minor aliasing, but detail held throughout foreground and background, and it was a clean print with few disturbing film to video artefacts.

     The English subtitles were burned into the print which, given the limitations of my schoolgirl French, did not bother me in this instance. There were occasional spelling mistakes which did bother me however.

     This disc is single sided with no layer change with which to contend.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     There is only one audio track on this DVD - Dolby Digital 2.0 in French.

     Dialogue appears clean and audio sync did not appear to be a problem, although someone with better language skills than my rudimentary French may have detected problems I did not see.

     The musical score by Angelo Badalamenti was possibly typical of what may be expected of the musical author of the score for Twin Peaks. Rather than content himself with simply arranging notes in a sequence recognisable as music, Badalamenti used all manner of elemental sounds as part of the score. In this dream world, these choices were superb, and provided an edgy and interesting soundscape to support the action and atmosphere. At times manic, at others gentle and lyrical, it was always interesting and distinctive.

     The surround channels were as well used as was possible in a 2.0 soundtrack. The sound was directional and clear, with the occasional burst from the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     Extras are very thin on the ground in this disc, which is again a frustration, given that the R1 version has a commentary by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and actor Ron Perlman. Did they think we wouldn't notice?

     Instead, we are apparently supposed to be grateful for two trailers for other films - sigh.

Menu

     The menu design is themed around the movie. It features an animated clip from the movie and Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded audio.

Trailer - The End of Violence (03:47)

Trailer - Cookie's Fortune (01:29)

     The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• 1.85:1 aspect ratio
• English (Dubbed) (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Spanish (Dubbed) (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Spanish subtitles
• French subtitles
• Commentary by director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Actor Ron Perlman
• Costume Design Gallery
• Production Sketch Gallery

     The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Nix, nada, not a sausage, nothing

     It is so insulting when you see all the goodies on offer, only to find that your particular region is excluded from them. The only redeeming factor is that at least we aren't subjected to the obligatory English dubbing that the R2 version is cursed with..

     It's a rare chance to fully immerse yourself in fantasy in the manner that this film offers. Don't try too hard with it. Let it flow over you. It is at turns melancholic, dangerous, comedic and filled with wonder. To be sure, if over-analysed, you may find the plot thin or too diffuse, but like a dream, it's not designed to be linear. It creates an almost narcotic landscape, then populates it with characters and situations that are archetypical in their form. I have no doubt that Jung would have had a field day with this film, but it proves that cinema does not have to be linear to "make sense" if you engage the correct cerebral hemisphere to watch it. Highly recommended.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall