We miss Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, but we still have gems like this
There was a time when the Frenchmen Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro seemed like they were going to turn European fantasy cinema upside down. His debut, ‘Delicatessen’, caught the attention of international cinephiles with its brutal balance between traditional cannibalism and the idyll of a Gallic comic. His second film, ‘The city of lost children‘, which you can see on Flixolé and Movistar Plus+, skyrocketed its budget and its delirium, in a kind of dreamlike blockbuster that unfortunately marked the end of their collaboration, with Caro focusing on illustration and design and Jeunet directing some more success like ‘Amelie’ or ‘Alien Resurrection’.
Unfortunately, none would match the feverish visual innovation of their two films together, a personal world full of analog gadgets, retrofuturism and plot eccentricity, comparable to the visions of the best and most personal Tim Burton, of the crazy Terry Gilliam from ‘Brazil’ or to what that outstanding student of the French who was the first Javier Fesser would do shortly after and at that time in Spain. ‘The City of Lost Children’ is the best example of his creativity and of how big-budget but also auteur cinema worked in the nineties, and which unfortunately has vanished from the screens.
The world of ‘The City of Lost Children’ is presented to us with a strange marine platform, where the evil Krank ages prematurely, as he lacks the ability to dream. That is why he kidnaps the children of the city to steal their dreams. Accompanying him in his evil plans is a brain that floats inside an aquarium and a band of clone men. In a port city, a nine-year-old girl and a strange kind-hearted giant, allied with an army of children, decide to confront him.
This dark delirium halfway between the stories of brave Victorian orphans and a cryptic anti-capitalist parable peppered with continuous digital visual experimentation, remains an island of dark creativity. His physical humor, the discovery of Ron Perlman as a force of nature and its feverish pace and several brilliant ideas per shot make it a unique film that can be recovered.
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