The City of Lost Children

In a gloomy, fog-shrouded harbor city, a prematurely aged scientist named Krank lives on an abandoned offshore platform with his cloned brothers and a floating brain called Irvin. Because he cannot dream, Krank ages rapidly, so his cyclops henchmen abduct children from the port and drag them to his laboratory, where he tries to steal their dreams to slow his decline. The children fear him too much to dream of anything but nightmares, which gives him no relief. When his younger brother disappears, One, a gentle strongman from a circus, searches the city for him and is joined by Miette, a nine-year-old girl, and her small band of resistance fighters.

The film is a French-led international production directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, who also wrote the screenplay with Gilles Adrien; it followed their 1991 debut feature Delicatessen in Jeunet's filmography and came before his later work including Alien Resurrection and Amélie. Ron Perlman plays One, with Dominique Pinon, Judith Vittet and Daniel Emilfork in the main roles. The production carried a budget of about 18 million dollars and took roughly 2 million dollars worldwide.

Audience responses were positive, with ratings of 7.4 out of 10 on IMDb from about 75,000 votes and 7.2 out of 10 on TMDB. A critics' rating of 7.5 out of 10 from 61 reviews places critical and audience assessments close together. The many nationalities listed among its production companies reflect the film's cross-border financing and European and American collaboration.