--- title: "The City of Lost Children" year: 1995 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-city-of-lost-children" fi1m_score: 78 critics_score: 73 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-16T20:31:56.562812+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T20:31:57.057707+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The City of Lost Children (1995) Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro · 1h 52m · MPA R · Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 73 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* The strongman and the orphan thief are reassuring company, which tells us something about the other residents > Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s fantasy rewards a tolerance for crowded storytelling with invention, black humour and an unexpectedly touching central partnership. Worth the occasional confusion, especially when the people get room to compete with their surroundings. ## Synopsis One (Ron Perlman) is a strongman who forms a partnership with Miette (Judith Vittet), an orphan thief. They inhabit a fantastical alternate world of dreams, machinery and grotesque figures. Krank (Daniel Emilfork), Marcello (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) and Miss Bismuth (Mireille Mossé) also populate this world, with Dominique Pinon playing The Diver / The Clones. The strongman and the child’s story winds through a grisly underworld, where fairy-tale encounters follow the logic of a nightmare and lead into a tangle of subsidiary stories. ## Review Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro make an adult fairy tale that expects us to enjoy being lost for a while. *The City of Lost Children* is worth that trouble, though its crowded storytelling occasionally makes the effort feel unnecessary. The grotesque inhabitants and elaborate surroundings keep offering something else to inspect just when we would like to follow the people already introduced. Fortunately, the partnership at its centre gives us a reason to stay beyond simple curiosity. Ron Perlman plays One, the strongman, opposite Judith Vittet’s orphan thief Miette, and their pairing is the film’s most persuasive choice. The difference between them is immediately readable, so the directors can ease off the business of making everything strange. We were moved by their companionship, because the strongman and the child give each other someone to depend on amid all this threatening company. Both performances allow us to care about the pair without needing to understand every complication around them. Production designers Jean Rabasse and Marc Caro sustain the grotesquerie across an entire imagined world. This matters in a fantasy: a strange figure needs somewhere to live, and here the surroundings have received as much thought as the inhabitants. Darius Khondji’s cinematography makes that density a pleasure to examine, although the images sometimes compete with the action for our attention. There are stretches when we find ourselves inspecting the picture instead of following the story, and the directors seem content to let us. Jean-Paul Gaultier’s costumes add another reason to watch the people as closely as their surroundings. Daniel Emilfork’s Krank belongs comfortably among these exaggerated figures, and the performance holds our attention despite the competition. Dominique Pinon, whose roles include The Diver and The Clones, also suits the film’s appetite for peculiar company. The cast gives the grotesques enough individuality to keep them from becoming an indistinguishable procession, though some receive more attention from the costume department than from the script. The difficulty lies in the screenplay by Gilles Adrien, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, which keeps branching when the central relationship needs more space. Individual encounters have their pleasures, but their place within the story can be hard to judge. Hervé Schneid’s editing keeps us moving, sometimes sending us towards another distraction before the previous one has quite registered. One and Miette could use more uninterrupted time together, without another diversion arriving to claim our attention. Angelo Badalamenti’s atmospheric score helps hold these excursions together, giving the fantasy some continuity when the storytelling grows restless. Its mood makes room for tenderness without making the strange company seem harmless. That mixture gives the film its appeal within adult fantasy, where elaborate ugliness can become tiresome if nobody earns our concern. Here, the strongman and the child remain worth following, and the music helps preserve their importance amid the bustle. At 112 minutes, the film does not require an enormous investment of time, but it does ask for a tolerance of clutter. The more impatient we become for a cleanly told adventure, the less satisfying it is. We would recommend it to anyone who enjoys grotesque fantasy, with a warning that its enthusiasm for subsidiary stories can wear thin. Choose it for an evening when getting a little lost sounds agreeable. *Fi1m score 78, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics respond warmly to The City of Lost Children, with praise concentrated on its surreal imagery, imaginative design and sinister fairytale world. The reviews repeatedly admire the blend of dreams, grotesque humour and Gothic fantasy, finding plenty of invention even when the storytelling proves less satisfying. Performances also draw praise for giving the elaborate surroundings a human centre, particularly through the relationship between the strongman and the orphan thief. The main disagreement concerns how much emotional weight the story carries. Empire finds the central partnership touching and the plot involving, while RogerEbert.com admires the images but finds less reason to care about the narrative. Other reservations concern disjointed storytelling, visual gimmickry and a sense that the many ideas never quite come together. The spread runs from enthusiastic approval to mixed responses rather than outright rejection: critics largely agree on the visual imagination, but differ over whether it sustains a whole film. ### Reviews we read (9) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (90/100, inferred): The City of Lost Children is a stunningly surreal fantasy and one of the most audacious, original films of the year, with brilliantly realized world-building and strong performances that balance its dazzle. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-22-ca-16731-story.html) - **Time Out**, GA (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a hugely inventive blend of dream, fairytale and myth set in a strange, sinister world with its own crazy logic. They single out the extraordinary visual and narrative inventiveness of Jeunet and Caro. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-city-of-lost-children) - **Empire**, Kim Newman (70/100, inferred): The film is a worthy successor to Delicatessen, with a more expansive though no less weird picture set in a fantastical alternate world. It succeeds through its touching team-up between a strongman and orphan thief and an involving, moving plot that supports the astonishing visuals. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/city-lost-children-review/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): The film excels in its astonishing visuals and imaginative design but falls short as a narrative, functioning more as a visual exercise than a story one cares about. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/city-of-lost-children-1995) - **The New York Times** (60/100, inferred): The film captures a child's fevered nightmare with intense surreal imagery but becomes overly enamored with visual gimmickry, resulting in a disjointed and emotionally chilly story. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/15/movies/film-review-out-of-the-fever-dreams-of-a-child.html) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (**): A vibrant, grotesque adult fairy tale full of breathtaking effects and in-your-face imagery that hits sensory highs but too rarely engages deeper emotions. [Read](https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/the-city-of-lost-children-1200440307/) - **Eye for Film**, Angus Wolfe Murray (90/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a work of originality without precedent that is unique and unsafe, enriched by grotesque imagery, labyrinthine sub-plots, desperate romanticism, black-blooded humour, a cornucopia of ideas and dazzling brilliance. They single out its dangerous, imaginative power and Gothic absurdity for praise. [Read](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?film_id=11985) - **/Film**, Witney Seibold (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a visually striking steampunk oddity and a glorious nightmare for kids, blending Tim Burton's Gothic impulses with Terry Gilliam's chaotic storytelling. They single out its dazzling, expressionistic visuals and unique fairy-tale narrative for praise while noting its cult appeal despite narrative complexity. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/2095061/ron-perlman-1995-sci-fi-fantasy-movie-the-city-of-lost-children/) - **The Skinny**, Michael Jaconelli (★★★): The critic finds the film a strange, inventive blend of fairy tale, dreams and steampunk that is a visual treat but never fully coalesces into a whole. They single out the eye-catching costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier and atmospheric score by Angelo Badalamenti for praise amid the grisly underworld and influences from Verne, Dickens and Gilliam. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/the-city-of-lost-children) ## Details - **Director:** Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro - **Director:** Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro - **Screenplay:** Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro, Gilles Adrien - **Cinematography:** Darius Khondji - **Editor:** Hervé Schneid - **Music:** Angelo Badalamenti - **Production design:** Marc Caro, Jean Rabasse - **Costume design:** Jean-Paul Gaultier - **Producer:** Félicie Dutertre, María Victoria Hebrero, José Luis Lopez - **Cast:** Ron Perlman as One; Dominique Pinon as The Diver / The Clones; Judith Vittet as Miette; Daniel Emilfork as Krank; Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Marcello; Geneviève Brunet as The Octopus; Odile Mallet as The Octopus; Mireille Mossé as Miss Bismuth - **Runtime:** 1h 52m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 15 December 1995 - **Genres:** Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure - **Budget:** $18 million - **Box office:** $2 million ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AU, BE, BG, CA, CH, CZ, ES, FR, GB, HU, IE, IN, LT, NZ, RO, SE, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Delicatessen* (1991), Fi1m 83: Another grotesque community, with black humour and affection beneath its unpleasant habits. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/delicatessen.md) - *Brazil* (1985), Fi1m 83: Elaborate machinery and bureaucratic cruelty make escape into fantasy seem entirely reasonable. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/brazil.md) - *The Night of the Hunter* (1955): Children face adult menace in a nightmare told with remarkable visual clarity. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-night-of-the-hunter.md) - *Spirited Away* (2001), Fi1m 92: A resourceful child navigates strange company, with more room for wonder than cruelty. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/spirited-away.md) - *The Devil's Backbone* (2001): A haunted orphanage gives childhood fear a concrete setting and painful human causes. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-city-of-lost-children