City of Lost Children...
Someone added the City of Lost Children (some obscure French film-translated into English) onto my amazon DVD rental list. I'm still not sure who. The IMDB lookup comes up with some bland description of "a circus heavyweight searches for his brother" which makes this sound rather lame. It is completely not. Apart from the poor voice-dubbing (it sounds similar to the type of thing you get in Japanese-English dubs in places) this is a truly incredibly steam-punk film. There are so many beautiful brass-based-devices I can't decide which to make and which just to marvel at - it is literally a goldmine for any steampunk based designer/fan. In places the film really feels like a cross between Dark City and Final Fantasy 7. Almost every shot in the entire thing being in some obscure steampunk metafuture - including a glowing brain in a fluidtank encased in an oak and brass-case, eerie oilrigs (on which the misunderstood baddies live) and submarines. It's very dark, incredibly industrial, and quite humorous at the same time. The dubbing is probably the worse part of it, which is sad as it lets down what is otherwise an incredible film, but I can truly see this becoming a cult film of sorts. Did I mention the Cyborgs? There's a fantastic scene of a cyborg church with about a thousand Sammpa's all worshipping away! If you get a chance, drink a half-bottle of good French wine and start watching this - then drink the second half with the movie. Bon Appétit!