City of Lost Children

If you’ve ever seen the movie City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus, 1995), you know that I’m talking about yet another surrealist dystopian nightmare, much like Delicatessen (which is basically by the same crew) or a Terry Gilliam film (such as Brazil or The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen, as well as some odd similarities with Jellowbeard), or even a Wes Anderson flick (such as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). The main story is about mad genius Krank (“Sick”) who abducts children to steal their dreams, with the hope of reversing his accelerated aging because he himself cannot dream. And then there’s the carnival strongman (Ron Perlman), who – with the help of the streetwise orphan Miette (“Little Crumb”) – searches for his little brother who of course has been kidnapped by Krank’s henchmen. This is one of those crazy, weird, dark movies you have to be in the mood for. I thought the acting was a little lame, but the story poses interesting questions about the incredible ways coincidences and accidents add up to important events in life. Maybe you’d like to give this one a try.

Delicatessen

Watching Man Bites Dog the other day made me realize that I’ve been meaning to check out Delicatessen for a while ... and then wondered if I had seen it before ... it all seemed so familiar... (Did I really see it before?) The setting is some post-apocalyptic France seemingly circa 1950, with much if not all of civilization, politics and economy burned to cinders. The plot centers on an apartment building run by the local butcher. I don’t think I’m giving anything away when I add that most animals have become extinct due to hunting, and that therefore the butcher doesn’t trade in animal meat, if you know what I mean... The best-known sequence is also the funniest, in which we see and especially hear tenants in the building play cello along a metronome, pump a bicycle wheel, beat a carpet, paint the ceiling, knit, drill holes in those little animal-call boxes, all in the rhythm set by the landlord making love to his mistress atop the squeaking bedsprings... Hahahaha! Definitely worth watching if you care for dark humor, but you have to be in the mood for weirdness... (And I haven’t even mentioned the Troglodists!)