This is my favorite film. I saw this film like 10 years ago. It's a french movie.
The plot revolves around a mad scientist, Krank, who lives in an old oil rig off the coast of a surreal Dickensian French city. Krank does not have the ability to dream, and as a result he is prematurely old. In order to supplement his dream deficit, Krank kidnaps young children in order to study and extract their dreams. Unfortunately for Krank, this scheme fails as the experience of being kidnapped is so traumatic that the children have only nightmares.
In pursuit of this scheme, Krank employs a sinister cult of blind men called "Cyclops" to perform the kidnappings. In return for giving up their sight, the cult's neophytes are given a mechanical "third eye" (called an "Optacon") and a device which makes their hearing supersensitive. This augmentation is as much a curse as it is a boon; at one point the audience sees the discomfort of one Cyclops listening to a character chew his food.
It is revealed that Krank is an artificially created man with superior intelligence. He was created by an inventor who also created six clones, a wife for himself (who later betrayed him), and a migraine-ridden brain in a tank named Irvin for him to interact with. Irvin's voice is supplied by Jean-Louis Trintignant; the Inventor and his clones are all played by Dominique Pinon.
The events of the film open with a sideshow strongman named One witnessing an orphan he cares for, named Denrée (Joseph Lucien), being kidnapped by Krank's Cyclops. It later turns out that Denrée is a special child because he is able to provide Krank with the ability to overcome his condition (because Denrée has no sense of fear). One sets out to find and rescue his "little brother", with the help of a nine-year-old street urchin girl named Miette (Judith Vittet).
Also in the film is a pair of Siamese twins known as "The Octopus". They run a thieves' guild in which they train and force orphans (one of whom is Miette) to steal for them. One gets caught up in the theft of a large safe because only he can carry it. The end result is the orphans' failure to completely empty the safe. Annoyed with this failure and Miette's subsequent decision to run off with One, the Octopus seeks to destroy them. To this end "The Octopus" attempt to secure help from their former boss (a ringmaster at a travelling circus who kept "The Octopus" as an attraction), whose trained fleas can inject poison into a person's scalp, inducing the victim to commit acts of violence when he plays his barrel organ.
One and Miette eventually overcome these multiple obstacles, rescuing Denrée with the aid of the inventor, who returns to destroy Krank's oil rig hideaway.
I highly recommend you guys this movie. Is hard to find in stores, but you can find it on online sites.
