Hacker Cinema
The City of Lost Children
La Cité des enfants perdus
1995 · Film · 112 min
Directed by Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
FantasyScience FictionAdventure
A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process.
4 positive5 neutralfrom 9 commenters
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10 comments on Hacker News
Sorry, I was also thinking of the same director’s City of Lost Children, which is 1995 and still has a teal/orange aesthetic. (Apologies to the French for using the translated titles.)
It looks like City of Lost Children was graded by Yvan Lucas via an analog process called ENR. Subsequently, Amelie was the first digital coloring he did, and, since it was before LUTs, his analog experience was crucial.
https://www.digitalmediaworld.tv/post/2917-colourist-yvan-lucas-grades-through-three-decades-of-cinema-2
None of this is true, nor does it need to be. As my photography professor says, “digital is better, but I don’t want better.”
Roma is as beautiful as anything shot on film, Amelie from 1995 is as teal-orange medium-shot photo filter as anything on Netflix. The Crown is often beautiful because of impressive practical lighting effects.
[EDIT: Amelie is from 2001, I mixed up the date with the same director’s City of Lost Children from 1995]
The City of Lost Children - French: La Cité des enfants perdus a 1995 science fantasy film
Ron Perlman as One : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Perlman
The City of Lost Children (1995) - IMDb : https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0112682/
I remember reading Canticle and thinking, "this feels just like Fallout" at various parts.
One question, is City of Lost Children the French movie by Jeunet or something else?
i liked brazil, but it, blade runner, and 2001 weren't nearly as good as delicatessen. delicatessen is so darkly funny and deliciously memorable (ha).
city of lost children, which came a little later by the same directors, is my all-time favorite in that dystopian future genre. it's probably a top 10 movie for me. plot, characters, the world you get sucked into, all top-notch. plus, you get the "brain in a vat" years before the matrix (which is also miles better than blade runner, 2001, and brazil).
It's a different style of movie, not really science fiction. I really like it though, really strong atmosphere. The city of lost children as well has a unique atmosphere
Alien, The Matrix, 12 Monkeys, Terminator, Fight Club, The Fifth Element, The Sixth Sense, Back to the Future, eXistenZ, Gattaca, The Arrival, 2001 space Odissey, the Shining, Trainspotting, Ground Hog day, Dune, Dark city, Tron, Demolition man, Total Recall, Robocop, The city of lost children...
Nuanced, scify, full of smart details or mind bending films are not new.
In fact, it's really hard to innovate now, because so much as already being covered.
Amelie uses a lot of red and green. Jean-Pierre Jeunet made "City of Lost Children" which also has a strong red green palette. He also directed "Delicatessen" that used a chemical process to give the film a gold glow.
I don't normally go on "pop culture rants", but as an ex-whedon fan, he's the worst of the bunch for me, and I'd be more than happy to see his work relegated in favor of more unique IP. I can't deny the "technical quality" of his work, but eventually you watch enough sci-fi and realize that while of course everyone pulls heavily from their predecessors, Whedon takes the kitchen sink. Dollhouse was the breaking point for me, both in terms of it being a weak, less predictive imitation of RuR, and the fact that at the end of the day, he has a pattern. He has good actors for that pattern, but you see them enough times and seeing them more times isn't really adding to anything.
There's a lot of noise about mourning the death of sci-fi/cinema etc, but the gems have always been the outliers. Metropolis and later Dark City, Delicatessen/City of Lost Children, Firefly(yes, I'll give him that one, outlaw star has some things to say, but that plot trope was already as old as the Romans.), Primer, Dark Mirror, I'm rambling at this point and this is totally going to spawn another sci fi binge, but my takeaway is that there's been a reasonable stream of surprisingly good sci fi that has popped up in unpredictable places over the years, even into the torrent era. I have some faith it will continue to bubble to the top. My theory is that the only reason good sci fi seems so rare now is that it has become so swamped by bad sci fi as it has begun to fill the mainstream.
Always used to be Children of Men and/or La cite des enfants perdus. First is the most intense movie I have ever seen, some scenes literally blew my mind. Latter is very dark whilst beautiful and sweet, like Amélie but better - more techfriendlly.
-------------- Don't really like trailers, but still --------------
Children of Men: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VT2apoX90o
La cité des enfants perdus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSPmtX5KzEw