‘The City of Lost Children’

Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro’s stunningly surreal 1995 fantasy, a fable of longing and danger, of heroic deeds and bravery, set in a brilliantly realized world of its own. Perched on pilings in the sea outside a port is an amazing and sinister laboratory/aerie of a distraught scientist named Krank (Daniel Emilfork), who is rapidly aging because he lacks the capacity to dream. Attended by the diminutive Miss Bismuth (Mireille Mosse), challenged constantly by the philosopher Irvin (a disembodied brain voiced by Jean-Louis Trintignant) and served by six Clones (Dominique Pinon)--one of whom is convinced that he’s the original--and an army (the Cyclops), Krank directs the systematic kidnapping of the children on the nearby harbor. Once in Krank’s clutches they’re strapped down, their heads encased in some sort of infernal device that allows Krank to invade his little captives’ dreams and make them his own. Jeunet and Caro spin a fairy tale celebrating the sacredness of the imagination and the importance of preserving a child’s capacity to dream (Showtime Monday at 10 p.m.).