"In "Delicatessen," the directors have created a freakishly fantastic universe out of time -- as if the world as we knew it ended around 1940 (which it might have) -- and out of place -- butcher shops are not called delicatessens in France, and the only clients of this one are the building's residents -- but somehow believably familiar. The residents are quirky but human, like people you might see on the subway and wonder about. That's what makes the film and its world work. That's also what makes it lugubrious (this week's rump steak was last week's resident). "The situations are caricatures, but the characters aren't," says Jeunet. "The actors play it all very seriously. If they had played it in an exaggerated way it would have been maudlin, a farce. It would have been Monty Python.""

"As directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, "Delicatessen" does not aspire to much more than simply flinging these characters together and intercutting their exploits in a quick, stylish fashion. The results can be weirdly hilarious, as when the sounds of Louison rhythmically rocking on creaky bedsprings (as he paints a ceiling) are allowed to permeate and co-opt every other activity going on in the house, from rug beating to knitting. They can also be frenetic and pointless, which is the case more and more frequently as the film spins out of control. Its last half-hour is devoted chiefly to letting the characters wreck the sets, and quite literally becomes a washout when the bathtub overflows. Shot in oppressive orangey tones and sometimes taking unexpectedly grisly turns, "Delicatessen" works best when simply allowing its characters to express their strangeness. The material's fun-house atmosphere is most effectively captured in simple interludes, like Julie's rehearsed but bungled attempt to serve tea to Louison or Mrs. Interligator's unsuccessful stab at doing herself in using a lamp, a sewing machine and a length of red satin. It's worthwhile finding out how this is supposed to work, and why it doesn't."

"Jean-Claude Dreyfus as Clapet"

"Karin Viard as Mademoiselle Plusse"

"In the studiously zany French fantasy film "Delicatessen," apocalyptic rubble and 1940's American kitsch make for a peculiar mix. The setting of the title is part of a half-demolished apartment house that stands amid unexplained postwar devastation, in a world where lentils have become currency and underground guerrillas called "troglodists" refer to apartment-dwellers as "surfacers." In spite of such apparent hardship, an antic spirit prevails at the apartment house in question, which is presided over by a butcher (Jean-Claude Dreyfus) with Sweeney Todd-like predilections. "I'm a butcher, but I don't mince words," he says."

"Ticky Holgado ~ ex acrobat"

"Jean-Louis Trirtignant ~ Uncle Irvin"

"But with each frame filled to bursting point with visual detail and multiplaned design, plus razor-sharp cutting that often eliminates transitions, it’s not a movie you can afford to take your eyes off for a second. In addition, the major set-pieces are so breathtaking that it’s sometimes hard to remember afterwards where the characters were last positioned in the plot. Effects work, all done in France, is seamless, to the extent that some (such as the clones, all played by Pinon) effectively lose the awesomeness of being an effect. On a purely emotional level, it’s notable that the film’s most engaging moments are those when the filmers turned off the computers and simply came up with entrancing ideas."

"[to Lafayette about the monkey] If you want him to live, you'll have to keep him warm."

"City of the Lost Children is just unbelievably bizarre when you watch it. The plot is a pretty simplistic good vs. evil ploy, but the city is the real star of the show. While it's funky urban-decay architecture and opaque green water is fascinating enough as it is, even more so are the inhabitants of the city. Here's a quick little list of what you'll see in this movie:"

"Rufus ~ Peeler"

"Mireille Mosse ~ Martha"

"Serge Merlin ~ chief of the Cyclops"

"Entirely created in a studio, and set in a world plunged into endless twilight-cum-night, the film posits a kind of neo-Victorian, industrial society where David Lynch would feel at home. Though “Delicatessen” was seemingly set in the wrong part of town in the early ’50s, “City” is more like a Looney Tunes fantasy sprung from the head of Jules Verne. Setting is a multilevel smokestack port littered with industrial detritus, rusty tankers and the biggest collection of weirdos and humans since Tod Browning’s “Freaks.” Local heavies are the Cyclops, a Nietzschean sect of one-eyed fanatics who abduct young kids for crazed inventor Krank (Daniel Emilfork), an aging wizen who lives on a castle-like oil rig beyond a giant minefield."

"Circus strongman"

"Gérard Depardieu - Gerard Lafayette"

"Francois Hadji-Lazaro"

"From Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, the distinctive French wunderkinder responsible for 1991's dazzling genre-bender Delicatessen, comes this similarly eye-popping effort, The City of Lost Children—a film at least equal to its predecessor in terms of sheer style, imagination, and invention, even if it doesn't hold together as well structurally. The movie follows the adventures of a brave nine-year-old girl who teams up with a gentle, simpleminded strongman in order to rescue her younger brother, who has been kidnapped, along with a handful of other kids, by a sad, rapidly aging old man named Krank, who uses his scientific genius to project himself into the world of the children's dreams in a vain attempt to liven up his dreadfully bleak existence on his secluded island fortress. The City of Lost Children fancies itself a fairy tale—albeit a dark and scary Brothers Grimm-styled one—and, were it not for a few isolated moments of icky violence and questionable sexual overtones, it would make a fine children's picture. However, in its current form, we have a movie charming enough to capture the simple magic of Méliès' A Trip to the Moon, yet high-tech enough to feature special-effects wizardry worthy of anything in Jurassic Park; sophisticated enough to grasp Terry Gilliam's jovial sense of cynicism, but wide-eyed enough to evoke a child's innocuous way of looking at things (even though it's still gleefully hip enough to swipe a sight gag from Stephen Sayadian's sexed-up “remake” of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). In short, we have a movie jam-packed with enough strange characters and wild mythologies for at least three films; ironically, therein lies both the picture's greatest strength and its most grating weakness. While it's undeniably wonderful to be presented with such a full palette, the sensory overload that inevitably occurs as the film progresses can't help but distance one from both the characters and the (admittedly marvelous) world they inhabit."

"Enrico Blasi"

"Geneviève Brunet ~ the Octopus"

"Luciano Pallocchia"

"Anselma Dell'Ollo"

"If I were to judge this film solely on its visuals, it would get an unqualified rave, no questions asked. It's only when I start to think about the story and the tone that my enthusiasm inches downward, because it's done more as an exercise than as a narrative you're meant to care about. Maybe the ultimate destination of "City of Lost Children" isn't in movie theaters at all, but on one of those video wall panels like Bill Gates is installing in his new house; you'd see an amazing image every time you walked past, and occasionally you'd linger for as many more astonishing sights as you felt capable of absorbing. The movie is an expensive, high-tech French production, using more special effects than any other French film in history, and it is appropriate that a lot of its look seems inspired by that Parisian visionary, Jules Verne. It takes place not so much in the future (or even in the dated but vivid "future" as seen by Verne) as in a sort of parallel time zone, where there are recognizable elements of our world, violently rearranged. The co-directors, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, created a similar visual extravaganza in their first feature, "Delicatessen," a 1991 fantasy about cannibalism."

"Daniel Emilfork ~ Krank"

"Judith Vittet ~ Miette"

"Assassin fleas and their accordion-grinder master"

"Dominique Pinon ~ Clones/Diver"

"Odile Mallet ~ the Octopus"

"If "City of Lost Children" had been released then, the "2001: A Space Odyssey (film)" fans would have segued right across the street to take it in. Through the years there have been other such inspired films made for the eye: "Blade Runner," "Fantasia," "Days of Heaven," "Brazil," "El Topo," "Santa Sangre," "Akira" and indeed "Delicatessen" come to mind. I am trying to be rather precise here, because many people will probably not find themselves sympathetic to this movie's overachieving technological pretensions, while others will find it the best film in months or years. You know who you are. I am not one of you. But I have enough of you in me to pass along the word. Far out."

"Marcello Mastroianni - Luigi Nocello"

"Jean-Claude Dreyfus ~ Marcello"

"Achille Antonaglia"

"Luc Besson's "The Professional" shows the love of a brute (Jean Reno) and an adolescent (Natalie Portman). Here, could one say as well that there is a love story between One and Miette, especially as evoked in the dialogue?"

"Indie Wire: I was thinking about “Delcatessen” and “The City of Lost Children.” While they are dark, they also have happy endings for the characters who deserve them. So, in that sense, maybe you’ve been sentimental and optimistic all along?"

"Krank, an evil inventor incapable of dreaming, kidnaps children hoping to steal their dreams - but can only retract their nightmares. But when the adoptive younger brother of circus strongman One is taken, One teams up with thief Miette to stage a daring rescue."

"Why was there so much secrecy during filming?"

"On the one hand, capitalism is presented as enabling self-interest and freedom, as exemplified by the freedom to produce scientific developments (Krank), pursue religious ideas (the Cyclopses), and seek wealth (the Octopus). On the other hand, it exposes the deplorable effects of capitalism ... the exploitation of childhood (the cynical orphans), of tenderness (the Original scientist, attacked and turned out by his own beloved creations), and of innocence (the terrified children whose dreams are stolen) while suggesting that there is no place in capitalism for originality, disinterestedness, duty, self-reflective analysis, and other defining aspects of "the human.""

"Can we find, in "The City of Lost Children," a parable on the desperation of modern man, who is progressively losing the ability to dream?"

"Abigail Clayton - Angelica (as Gail Lawrence)"

"Stefania Casini - Feminist Actress"

"Francesca De Sapio"

"Geraldine Fitzgerald - Mrs. Toland"

"Mimsy Farmer - Feminist Actress"

"Avon Long - Miko"

"Circus midgets"

"A bunch of clones that suffer from narcolepsy"

"Borg/Hellraiser-type looking people"

"A brain in a jar"

"Evil Siamese twins"