The City of Lost Children (1995)

If Pan’s Labyrinth has a spiritual ancestor, it’s this one. The City of Lost Children (La Cité des enfants perdus), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, is a visually intoxicating French fantasy about a mad scientist who steals children’s dreams to stave off his own aging.

The plot centers on One (Ron Perlman), a circus strongman searching for his kidnapped little brother, and Miette, a brave orphan girl. Together, they navigate a world that feels stitched together from nightmares and circus scraps — steam, fog, gears, and memory.

Every frame is drenched in atmosphere: green-gold hues, distorted architecture, and haunting music by Angelo Badalamenti. The story is dark yet tender, a meditation on innocence and exploitation, seen through the lens of visual poetry rather than realism.

It’s not a conventional fantasy — it’s dream logic made film. You don’t watch it to understand it; you watch it to feel it. And it feels like a forgotten fairy tale written in rust and candlelight.

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5) — A haunting, hypnotic masterwork of visual fantasy; the 1990s’ strangest and most beautiful dream.