Can someone explain the appeal of The City of Lost Children to me?

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I ask this honestly, I watched it maybe a couple of years ago and absolutly hated it. I found it to be a total bore. I found it so boring, that I've essentially forgotten everything that happened in it, I've just blocked it out. But the reviews I've read recently have been hailing it as some sort of masterpiece of new french cinema. WHAT.THE.FUCK.CRITICS?

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't know about critics are saying but I really liked it. Personally, I liked it because it was kind of somber and creepy. I love movies with kids that act like grown-ups and grown-ups that relate to kids. The dream sequences were really far out, as well. I only saw it once with subtitles but I think I'd like to see it again, just so that I don't focus so much on reading and watch what's going on more.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, you like what you like and don't what you don't.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Tuesday, 6 April 2004 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Besides finding it boring, what didn't you like about it?

― Anthony (Anthony F), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 23:19 (twenty-one years ago)

That's just it, I don't remember it enough to clarify, which is why I asked the question.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 23:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw it a long time ago. I remember liking it just cause it was so damn wierd, even though it didn't make any sense to me at all. I guess it's the kind of thing you just either instinctively respond to or you don't.

― Anthony (Anthony F), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 23:55 (twenty-one years ago)

It was visually stunning & carried a similar, though more subtle and infinitely deeper, love story to "the professional". atmosphere and imagery speak more to me than storyline and pacing in my appreciation of film, and i found this film to be very profound, surreal and incredibly beautiful in every sense of the word. it's like a french version of "brazil".

as for boring, i find antonioni exciting, so i'm the wrong guy to comment.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 00:10 (twenty-one years ago)

>...french version of "brazil".

That's funny. I got rented Brazil and City of Lost Children within a week of one another. I rated Children 5/5 stars and Brazil 2/5 stars. I didn't like Brazil at all and I usually go for anything dystopian. Plus, I didn't like seeing Michael Palin as a bad guy. :(

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 11:07 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM on visually stunning. I think that was what did it for me, plus the bizzare multiple Dominique Pinons and the little woman with them.

― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 8 April 2004 06:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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