MAY 1995
In the first of a new regular feature, we look back at the month SFX was born
WORDS: IAN BERRIMAN
FLASHBACK
The City Of Lost Children: children not pictured.
PICTURES: STUDIO CANAL+, DOCTOR WHO BOOKS, UNITED ARTISTS, PULP/ISLAND RECORDS. STOCK ART: NEUEVECTOR/GETTY
French Fancy
17 MAY 1995 After opening the Cannes Film Festival, La Cité Des Enfants Perdus (The City Of Lost Children) was released across France, laying out a lavish visual banquet for cinemagoers.
The second feature collaboration by directorial duo Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, this surrealism-tinged steampunk fantasy sees Ron Perlman’s strongman teaming up with a street kid to rescue her little brother – kidnapped by a cyborg cult and taken to a mad scientist’s abandoned oil rig lair, to be subjected to a dream-extracting machine. The film’s American star was cast after Caro saw his performance in Guillermo del Toro’s Cronos. Speaking to SFX in 2022, the director remarked, “He has a wonderful face, Ron Perlman. It’s like a sculpture or something.” One problem: the actor didn’t speak French. Fortunately, his character was the strong, silent type… Perlman worked with a vocal coach to learn the few phrases required.