La Cité des Enfants Perdus

Cité des Enfants Perdus, La (City of Lost Children). Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, dir., script (along with Gilles Adrien). France: Production very complex (see IMDb at address listed at below) / Sony Picture Classics (US dist.), 1995. Ron Perlman, star. 112 min.

IMDb Plot Outline: "A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process"[us.imdb.com/Companies?0112682]. Relevant here for imagery of the devices used to steal the dreams: the heads and, necessarily, the subconscious of both the scientist and his victims are encased in very PoMo rigs, superimposing the electronic on something quite organic and associated with intelligence: dreaming. Note also clones and an "Uncle" that is a human brain inside a small aquarium with old-fashioned speaker horns and camera for communication and senses. For imagery, cf. and contrast BRAZIL. Discussed by Dan Persons, Cinefantastique 27.4/5 (Jan. 1996): 116-17.

(RDE, 28/03/02)