the scenic route is long and winding

As befits the current fixation with hollywood's resident heavy (Ron Perlman, the man), i have been buying/watching/awaiting various stupid B movies, straight-to-cable and straight-to-video flicks just to get a glimpse of dear Ronny's baby blues and barrel chest.

I have now seen more than my fair share (actually any person's fair share) of unbelievably bad-blech movies and a couple of underappreciated gems as well.

One of the most recent acquisitions was a copy of Jean Pierre Jeunet's and Marc Caro's The City of Lost Children, one of the better designed movies i have seen in previous years (although maybe a copy with better colors will help me appreciate it better). Costume design was by the equally weird, sometimes fabulous Gaultier.

The City of Lost Children (1995) is a French film that has good, simple intentions. I think, though, that this is a movie that could have done with fewer realized characters. It's understandable, given the setting (neo-modern, Mad Max magica land type) that all the characters will be off-kilter interpretations of the good, bad, and those in the gray. However, as plot points, some of the characters could have afforded to be a little more stereotypical (never thought I'd say that) to actually help push the story instead of the context.

The film details the journey of One (Perlman) and Miette (some very pretty French kiddie actress) as they try to outwit Krank (some wonderfully creepy actor) and his minions to save Denree, One’s adoptive baby brother. Krank, you see, steals children’s dreams in order to “feel”.

One used to work in the local circus as the strongman and Miette is the acknowledged leader of a band of young semi-criminals. One, who used to be a harpoonist until he heard whales sing, has the heart and mentality of a 12-year old, while Miette is as jaded as they can get. They find in each other a kind of family. In the process of saving Denree, the duo encounters a cult of one-eyed people who see everything in green, a flea spy and his master, conjoined evil twins, a prostitute, and an underwater treasure (actually garbage) collector, etc.

The film has touching moments of warmth and weirdness, and as such, unreels like something I have never seen before. If you have ever tried listening to the band-group-”musician’s collective”-whatever called Forest for the Trees, watching The City of Lost Children evokes the same kind of response--scratching your head until your children have children.

...all in all, I still like it, if only for the moments that are all at once touching, pervy, and disturbing... those and the "unravelling" knitted sweater scene =)

The offbeat The City of Lost Children can be scary (especially the opening sequence), sweet, sad, and deceptively simple. If you like Neil Gaiman, children’s fiction, gothic fairy tales, and the better horror films, you’ll like this.