Line #25 Film/TheCityOfLostChildren


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/city_of_lost_children.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Who has stolen the child's dream?\
4	The mad genius Krank in his evil scheme.\
5	To what vicious depths will he not descend?\
6	Will the tale turn to tragedy...\
7	or have a happy end?"''
8
9	''The City of Lost Children'' is a 1995 French science-fiction film directed by Marc Caro and Creator/JeanPierreJeunet, who also directed the similarly dark and surreal ''Film/{{Delicatessen}}''.
10
11	The film follows a circus strongman, One (played by Creator/RonPerlman), and a streetwise orphan, Miette, in their attempts to save One's adopted little brother from Krank (Creator/DanielEmilfork), a mad scientist who steals dreams.
12
13	It opened at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
14	----
15	!!This film provides examples of:
16
17	* AdorableEvilMinions: The six cloned brothers.
18	* AntiVillain: Krank suffers everything his victims do in his failed experiments, is totally incapable of understanding why even his kindest acts only frighten the children, is shown to be deeply affected by Uncle Irvin's insults, and [[spoiler:is the way he is because something went wrong in his creation]]. Even at his worst, his condition is so pitiable, it's heartbreaking.
19	* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler:Krank and his compatriots.]]
20	* TheAtoner: Marcello. After he leaves Miette to drown in the docks, he becomes overwhelmed with guilt. When she resurfaces, alive, he is overjoyed, and does everything he can to help her and One for the rest of the story.
21	* BadassAndChildDuo: A circus strongman and a streetwise urchin teaming up.
22	* BadSanta: When he invades the children's dreams, Krank often (unintentionally) appears this way.
23	* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: The Octopus orders the guard to kill Marcello. We hear a shot coming from inside Marcello's trailer but the next scene reveals that the guard fired in the air to fool the Octopus.
24	* BigBrotherInstinct: One has this, first for Denrée and then for Miette. He identifies Denrée as his brother, but there's no genetic link between them. He found the kid in a garbage can.
25	* BigEater: Denrée. Played for cuteness. He has an insatiable appetite, he spends pretty much all of his screen time eating or burping, and then eating some more.
26	* BigNo: One combines this with SkywardScream when seeing tied-up Miette falling from the plank into the water to her [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat certain death]].
27	* TheBlindLeadingTheBlind: The blind leader of the Cyclops preaches to the others that they will eventually regain their sight by following his orders. We also see a chain of Cyclops holding onto each other's shoulders, led by a one-eyed member.
28	* BloodFromTheMouth: [[spoiler:Martha has blood coming from her mouth after getting impaled through the abdomen with a harpoon]].
29	* BorrowedWithoutPermission: After One expresses his discontent about taking part in stealing a safe, one of the boys excuses their action by saying they were just borrowing the safe.
30	* BrainInAJar:
31	** Uncle Irvin's talkative DeadpanSnarker brain is stored in a jar in Krank's lab. And he has migraines.
32	** We also see severed heads (presumably from failed clones) in jars.
33	* BrainwashedAndCrazy: [[spoiler:One becomes brainwashed by the Octopus and almost kills Miette.]]
34	* CannotDream: Krank's dire dilemma. Him then kidnapping children and [[DreamStealer stealing their dreams]] sets off the plot.
35	* CatapultNightmare: When the green mist enters Miette's sleeping mind to induce a nightmare, she gets up screaming.
36	* ChimneyEntry: The Santas in the DreamIntro enter the kid's room through the chimney.
37	* CityWithNoName: We never learn the name of the port town where the film is set.
38	* ConjoinedTwins: The Octopus are joined at the hip and share a single central leg with a double-wide shoe. They behave almost like a single organism.
39	* ConvenientlyTimedAttackFromBehind: When Martha is about to [[spoiler: shoot Miette with her revolver, the Driver shoots her from behind with a harpoon.]]
40	* CrapsackWorld: The city is depicted as ugly and polluted and bearing an extremely grim atmosphere, the police force is incompetent enough so that children are constantly kidnapped by Krank's associates, the Cyclops organization practically terrorizes the entire city and no one seems to have guts to stop them and citizens are occasionally mugged by the kids under the control of the Octopus.
41	* CreepyCircusMusic: Marcello's music box, which additionally hypnotizes drugged victims into violence.
42	* CreepyTwins: The Octopus [[SpeakInUnison speaks in unison]] and share each other's biological processes.
43	* CutleryEscapeAid: Disgusted with the PovertyFood served to the children at the oil rig, Denrée sticks a spoon into the gap of the closing door to escape and make his way to the good stuff in the kitchen.
44	* DeadHatShot: The last of what we see of [[spoiler: the Octopus after she drowns in the water is a shoe floating on the surface]].
45	* DeathTrap: To execute One and Miette, the Cyclops bind them each on a plank over the ocean, counterbalanced by a basket of dead fish. When the seagulls eat enough of the fish to no longer support the weight of the captive, they fall into the ocean to drown.
46	* DieselPunk: It's a science fiction story where society seems to have a technology level roughly comparable to TheForties. However, there are also cybernetic implants, cloning, and other advanced technology.
47	* DisasterDominoes: Inverted; an elaborate series of chained events [[spoiler:ends up saving One and Miette from the Octopus]].
48	* DreamIntro: The opening nightmare scene turns out to be part of an experiment done on a test subject in Krank's lab.
49	* DreamStealer: What Krank has become.
50	* DumbMuscle: One is not very bright and speaks in {{Hulkspeak}}, yet he's also a circus strongman. Miette says that he's got the mind of a child.
51	* DumbwaiterRide: On the oil rig, Denrée ends up in the dumbwaiter going up to Krank's dinner room.
52	* EekAMouse: During the DisasterDominoes scene, some ladies from the strip club run onto the street screaming after rats end up in the building. It leads to a lineman getting [[DistractedByTheSexy distracted by the naked women]] resulting in him tripping the district's power line.
53	* EmotionlessGirl: Miette starts off as this. [[DefrostingIceQueen She gets better]] after developing a PrecociousCrush on One.
54	* EmpathyDollShot: Early on, when [[KickTheDog Krank tosses the boy's teddy bear from the oil rig]], we see it slowly sink into the ocean. [[spoiler: It's later saved and returned by the Diver]].
55	* ExpendableClone: Inverted: [[spoiler: all the clones survive, while the Inventor dies.]]
56	* FaceplantingIntoFood: The clones have a genetic defect causing [[SleepyHead sleeping sickness]]. One of them suddenly passes out at the coffee table plunging his face into a birthday cake.
57	* TheFagin: The Octopus's side job.
58	* FauxFluency: Creator/RonPerlman was the only American in the film and memorized all his lines phonetically since he did not speak French. He did an excellent job from all accounts.
59	* FearlessFool: Denrée is explicitly said to be fearless, [[SkewedPriorities because he's too gluttonous to care about anything else other than food.]]
60	* FishEyeLens: The scenes from Uncle Irvin's POV are shot with this lens.
61	* {{Gasshole}}: Denrée burps quite a few times in the movie, probably because of his constant gorging.
62	* GentleGiant: One is DumbMuscle who cares for children.
63	* GlassShatteringSound:
64	** When Krank screams out in the opening scene, we see glass in his lab breaking.
65	** When One screams abuse at himself and punches a wall, a woman in a window complains that he's shattered her crystal with the noise and will crack her chandelier if he continues.
66	* GratuitousEnglish: Ironically not spoken by the American Ron Perlman. When one of the orphans manages to catch One with a life preserver, he exclaims, "Great!"
67	* GratuitousLaboratoryFlasks: Krank's lab has loads of goodies, including severed heads (presumably from failed clones) in jars.
68	* HandGagging: One muffles Denrée's mouth when hiding from the Cyclops searching their trailer.
69	* HarpoonGun: [[spoiler:The Diver saves Miette by shooting Martha with one.]]
70	* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
71	** The Octopus uses Marcello's mind-controlling fleas to capture One and Miette, then - after trying to have Marcello executed for failing to bring One back - uses them in an attempt to outright murder One and Miette. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for them, Marcello regains control and uses the same fleas to drive the Octopus into a crazed fit of sibling rivalry that ends with the two of them plunging off the dock to their deaths.]]
72	** Krank uses his machines to [[DreamStealer harvest the dreams of children]], subjecting the children to nightmares in the process. For good measure, he also uses Uncle Irvin to help manage these experiments despite his prickly relationship with the disembodied brain. [[spoiler: In the finale, Miette is guided on how to use the machinery by Uncle Irvin, who's been undermining Krank all along. Consequently, Krank finds himself on the receiving end of a nightmare in which he's regressed to childhood and used in his own experiments, resulting in him being so overwhelmed with horror that he dies of what appears to be a stroke.]]
73	** In the finale, [[spoiler: The Diver attempts to blow up Krank's lair with dynamite in a crazed attempt to erase his mistakes, clearly not giving a damn about anyone left on the rig. At the last minute, he has a change of heart... only to end up getting blown to pieces when a seagull lands on the [[PlungerDetonator plunger]].]]
74	* HugeGuyTinyGirl: One and Miette. Also Krank and Martha (Mademoiselle Bismuth).
75	* {{Hulkspeak}}: One speaks in simplified grammar and refers to himself in the third person. This helps Ron Perlman speak his lines convincingly even though he's reciting them phonetically. It's not clear whether he speaks another language more fluently, given that he's DumbMuscle.
76	* HydrantGeyser: During the DisasterDominoes scene, a driver crashes into a hydrant which results in a geyser.
77	* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Martha is killed when the Diver impales her on a harpoon in probably the goriest scene of the movie. Rather nastily played more realistically in that she doesn't instantly die but is incapacitated by pain and left bleeding from the mouth from internal damage for some time before dying.]]
78	* InappropriateHunger: Denrée is defined by his appetite, resulting in him making poor decisions:
79	** First he gives himself and One away with biting sounds when the Cyclops are searching their trailer.
80	** On the rig, he prioritizes dinner over escaping even when he manages to sneak away from captivity, resulting in him eating Krank's dinner on the [[DumbwaiterRide dumbwaiter up to his quarters]] - and being given priority in the experiments as a result.
81	** [[spoiler: Later, One catches him stuffing his face in the kitchens when the lair is about to blow up and exasperatedly drags him away.]]
82	* IndustrialGhetto: The titular city, the industry in question being a huge port.
83	* InstrumentOfMurder: The music box.
84	* IntergenerationalFriendship: One and Miette.
85	* IrisOut: The movie ends with this visual effect.
86	* JabbaTableManners: Denrée. Makes sense, considering how much of a BigEater he is, he's just trying to stuff as much food in his mouth as fast as possible. He eats with his hands, munches with his mouth hanging open, and he stuffs so much food in his gob that his cheeks look like they're about to burst!
87	* JawDrop When One enters the classroom and moves the super-heavy safe everyone looks at him with this expression.
88	* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:The Octopus tries to brainwash One into killing Miette with Marcello's mind control fleas and when that fails, attempts to burn them alive. Marcello kills the Octopus by making the twins fight with his fleas and fall into the same oil slick they were trying to use to kill One and Miette then igniting it.]]
89	* TheKeyIsBehindTheLock: The kids use an elaborate sequence of actions involving cheese, a mouse, a magnet and a cat to get their hands on the key from inside the room where the safe is stored.
90	* KillItWithFire: The Octopus attempts to burn One and Miette alive. [[spoiler:Marcello then proceeds to kill the Octopus [[KarmicDeath the exact same way]].]]
91	* LittlePeopleAreSurreal: Martha adds on to the overall bizarre cast of characters
92	* MadScientist: Krank [[spoiler:and his creator, the Diver]].
93	* ManChild: One is an adult, but Miette says that he has the mind of a child. When a prostitute tries to seduce him, he seems only dimly aware of the concept of romance.
94	* ManipulativeBastard: Uncle Irvin turns out to be this.
95	* MeaningfulName: ''Krank'' is German for ''sick'', ''Denrée'' is French for ''foodstuff'', ''Miette'' is French for ''crumb''.
96	* MidSuicideRegret: [[spoiler:At least, blowing up the lab in a suicide attack was the Diver's original plan. Seeing his notes drift into the sea makes him change his mind, and he frantically calls out to his clones and Uncle Irvin, who are busy following One and the kids back to the city. Then a seagull lands on the plunger for his dynamite...]]
97	* MissingChild: There are search posters of the kidnapped children all over the city.
98	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: One relates how he was once a whale harpooner until he heard whales sing. He was thereafter unable to land another shot.
99	* NightmareWeaver: [[spoiler: Miette gives Krank one nasty nightmare in the form of him de-aging into a little boy and being put through his own experiments, like how he had several children go through. It's so bad he seemingly dies of a stroke shortly after waking up from it.]]
100	* OlderThanTheyLook: Krank's dreaming incapability is causing him to age rapidly.
101	* OrganGrinder: Marcello duns an organ player when [[InstrumentOfMurder controlling the fleas with the instrument]]. Later the Octopus does it in his place.
102	* {{Ouroboros}}: Also a case of SymbolMotifClothing. Towards the end, there is a close-up of Krank's ring that shows a serpent eating its own tail, which represents life, death, self-destruction and immortality.
103	* PestController: Marcello has trained flea assassins that inject a target with a tiny amount of a drug that makes the victim violent and easy to manipulate with his music.
104	* PhysicalAttributeSwap: [[spoiler: In the dream world, after Miette fooled Krank into allowing her to become the source of the dream, the two swap ages as Miette becomes the old genius while Krank becomes a child. The former then forces the latter into his own experiments who knows how many times in the form of a nightmare.]]
105	* PlungerDetonator: One is used in the climax to detonate the oil rig.
106	* PrecociousCrush: Miette's fellow orphans tease her that she's fallen in love with One, an adult. She doesn't trouble to deny it and insists that she's at least as mature as he is. When One rubs her feet and talks about getting a wife one day, Miette pointedly asks what kind of wife he'd want. One never seems to notice her crush and thinks of her only as his "little sister."
107	* PsychoticLoveTriangle: The professor created Martha to be a wife. By the time Krank turns against him, she is loyal to his other creation (making this a case of an attempted MurderTheHypotenuse) which may have contributed to their eventual betrayal. Once their maker is gone, they are together, making this possibly the strangest LoveTriangle to appear on film.
108	* PunchAWall: One punches a wall out of frustration after Miette tells him it's no use looking for his little brother.
109	* RapidAging: [[spoiler: What ends up happening to Krank and Miette in the dreamworld.]] This is happening to Krank at a slower pace due to his inability to dream.
110	* ReactiveContinuousScream: When Krank starts screaming coming out of the opening nightmare scene, the scream catches onto the clones who all start screaming one after the other.
111	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: When Krank is still trying to figure out why he can’t dream, Uncle Irvin suggests analyzing his tears. After the clones fail to make Krank cry with laughter, Uncle Irvin gives one of these to him (and offhandedly Martha, the clones, and himself) in the form of a fairytale to try to make him cry with despair. It actually works.
112	-->'''Uncle Irvin:''' Once upon a time, there was an inventor so gifted, that he could create life. Truly remarkable man. Since he had no wife or children, he decided to make them in his laboratory. He started with his wife, and fashioned her into the most beautiful princess in the world. Alas, a wicked genetic fairy cast a spell on the inventor, so much so that the princess was only knee-high to a grasshopper. He then cloned six children in his own image. Faithful, hardworking, they were so alike no one could tell them apart. But fate tricked him again, giving them all sleeping sickness. Craving someone to talk to, he grew in a fish tank a poor migraine-ridden brain. And then, at last, he created his masterpiece; more intelligent than the most intelligent man on Earth. But, alas, the inventor made a serious mistake. While his creation was intelligent, he, too, had a defect. ''He never, ever had a dream''. You can’t imagine how quickly he grew old because he was so unhappy.\
113	(''Krank begins to cry, and Martha collects his tears with an eye dropper'')\
114	'''Uncle Irvin:''' [[ILied Then the poor masterpiece became so crazed, that he believed a single teardrop could save him.]] And, after committing many cruel deeds, he died a horrible death, never knowing what it is to dream.
115	* SensoryOverload: The Cyclops' listening devices are vulnerable to Denrée's loud biting sound when they search the trailer.
116	* SerpentOfImmortality: Krank has an {{Ouroboros}} ring representing life, death, self-destruction and immortality.
117	* SingleMindedTwins: The Octopus speak in unison and share each other's senses. When one takes a drag off a cigarette, the other exhales the smoke,
118	* SinisterSuffocation: One Cyclop is brainwashed into strangling his companion to death.
119	* SkywardScream: One does this when [[spoiler:he thinks Miette has drowned]].
120	* SleepyHead: The six clones were created with a narcolepsy-like "sleeping sickness" that causes them to doze off at random.
121	* SuicideAttack: [[spoiler:The Diver blows up the lab with a suicide bombing at the end.]]
122	* TauntingTheTransformed: [[spoiler: In the finale, [[WiseBeyondTheirYears Miette]] talks [[BigBad Krank]] into using her in his DreamStealer experiments in place of Denrée; however, this just gives her the opportunity to [[DreamWeaver turn the dream against him]], resulting in the two of them [[PhysicalAttributeSwap swapping ages]]. Krank is left horror-stricken as he regresses to childhood, and a middle-aged Miette immediately celebrates by mockingly dancing him around the room, clearly enjoying the fact that she's now bigger than him. Eventually, Krank shrinks down into a screaming toddler, while Miette assumes his place as the elderly genius, allowing her to subject her opponent to all the torturous experiments he subjected the other children to - on a loop - until Krank finally suffers a stroke in the real world.]]
123	* TearsOfRemorse: Marcello when confronted by Miette [[spoiler: who he left to die under order of the Octopus]].
124	* ThirdPersonPerson: One talks like this, conveying that he is DumbMuscle.
125	* TrailOfBreadCrumbs: One hand Miette a twine of his sweater for her not to get lost in the hallways of the rig.
126	* TripTrap: While the safe-stealing gang is on the run from the police, two boys of the group make the pursuing policeman trip over a rope.
127	* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: The inventor who created Krank and Martha was attacked by his own creations and thrown overboard.
128	* TwinTelepathy: The Octopus, to the point of being practically a HiveMind.
129	* UnflinchingFaithInTheBrakes: When the Octopus stands at the pier waiting for the incoming ship to stop right in front of their nose.
130	* UnusualPetsForUnusualPeople: Krank has a chameleon as a pet.
131	* VideoCredits: The closing credits show each major character with a screenshot and the actor's name.
132	* TheVoiceless: Denrée never talks, the only things that leave his mouth are [[{{Gasshole}} extremely loud belches]].
133	* WalkThePlank: The mooks arrange a DeathTrap where One and Miette are bound up and placed on a plank.
134	* WaterIsAir: The Diver lives permanently at the bottom of the sea near the harbor, collecting flotsam and jetsam.
135	* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Miette, who considers One to be ''her'' little brother.
136	* WorldsStrongestMan: At the fair, One is announced by the MC as the world's strongest man. We see him preparing for a [[BreakingTheBonds Break the Chains]] act.
137	* WouldHurtAChild:
138	** Krank has no qualms [[DreamStealer stealing dreams from screaming children]].
139	** The Cyclops make Miette WalkThePlank.
140	** Later, One slaps and strangles Miette while being brainwashed by the Octopus.

Context Film / TheCityOfLostChildren