"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."

"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."

"Assassin fleas and their accordion-grinder master"

"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."

"A couple dozen Santa Clauses"

"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."

"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?"

"Why was there so much secrecy during filming?"

"So, what will it be, soldier?"

"Igon Sirrus: I'm fighting for a noble cause, too. Mine."

"I know all of Shakespeare by heart."

"Jolly the Pimp: Rules are rules and this is a place where we make love, not war."

"I leave you my Kingdom, take good care of it."

"I didn't come here to get a makeover."

"I'd rather that you took me somewhere other than a giant trash can!"

"[to a trio of Doghan-Dagui] Clearly you've never met a woman."

"It's our mission that doesn't make sense, sir."

"Bussing tables! Every artist's worst nightmare! Never mention this to anybody, okay?"

"Button Man: By the grace of God."

"Dane Dehaan – Valerian"

"Can I help? I'm a good driver."

"John Goodman – Igon Sirrus"

"Ethan Hawke – Jolly the Pimp"

"Rihanna – Bubble"

"Cara Delevingne – Laureline"

"Frances McDormand - Miss Clavel"

"Nigel Hawthorne - Lord "cucuface" Covington"

"Stéhane Audrun - Lady Marie-Gilberte Covington"

"Bruno Corazzari as Charlie"

"You were wise to put your trust in the law, boy."

"Loris Loddi as Young Silence"

"And now, boy... I've been waitin' a long time for an amusin' day like this."

"Well, Petes. What times we live in... when a black's worth as much as a white man!"

"If anybody draws first... it's gotta be you."

"Luigi Pistilli as Henry Pollicut"

"Mario Brega as Martin"

"Carlo D'Angelo as the Governor (final film role)"

"Vonetta McGee as Pauline Middleton"

"Marisa Merlini as Regina (Régine in Italian)"

"Frank Wolff as Sheriff Gideon Burnett (Corbett in Italian)"

"I play the part of a mute. The audience won't realize it because during the first two-thirds of the film, there's no reason for him to speak. I like it because in most Westerns, they talk too much and say nothing."

"Spartaco Conversi as Walter"

"Jean-Louis Trintignant as Gordon/"Silence""

"Klaus Kinski as "Loco" ("Tigrero" in the Italian version)"

"Raf Baldassarre as Sanchez's Brother (Bobo Schultz in Italian)"

"Martin: Cold, ain't it? I reckon I'd head for a better climate if I was you... more like Haiti. Oh, I meant no offence, Pauline, no offence."

"Henry Pollicut: [shows his mutilated thumb to Silence] Look at my hand. Remember what you did?! You cripple just to spite the men you hate... so nobody'll be able to use a gun, against you. Maybe you ruined my hand, but still, what I come here to get, it won't matter much!"

"Regina: If you come here, Loco, you'll find out I can shoot a pistol, too!"

"Sheriff Gideon Burnett: Poor old Betsy. Everything I had... was on that horse. The only thing I ever loved."

"My husband was a good man. They forced him to steal, to give me a decent life. Because... Pollicut could put a price on his head. He thought if I became his mistress... well, he thought wrong."