Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7946 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-04-10
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English, French, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Yiddish
• Subtitled in: English, French, Dutch
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried, like her acclaimed Orlando before it, is an ambitious exploration of identity, richly intoxicated with the sensual possibilities of cinema. Photographed by one of Europe's greatest cinematographers, Sacha Vierny (Last Year at Marienbad, Belle du Jour, Hiroshima Mon Amour), with extravagantly beautiful costumes by Oscar-winner Lindy Hemming (Topsy-Turvy) and set in the vibrant milieu of a Paris slowly building towards World War II, visually this is European cinema at its bigger-budget best. The costumes in a Parisian can-can club are some of the most sumptuous ever created, and the sombre hues in the misty Russian village of the opening sequence haunt the screen throughout the film, yet they promise an excellence and a mystery that is never quite delivered. Potter's ambition isn't justly rewarded largely because of her strange choices of lead actors. Perhaps due to the weight of a hefty budget and the perceived box-office pull of American stars, some odd casting choices were made. To see Christina Ricci as a displaced Russian peasant, not to mention Johnny Depp as a Romanian Gypsy and John Turturro as a fascist Italian theatre director, jars to say the least. Perhaps this was part of Potter's design in a film that is once again obsessed with the splintered and shimmering surfaces of European identity (or maybe the cod accents are a mark of Potter's reputedly cheeky humour?).

On the DVD: The DVD itself is disappointingly devoid of extra features, but this digital version beautifully showcases the glorious craftsmanship on offer. --Tricia Tuttle

Video Description
The Man Who Cried is set in 1927 and follows the story of Fegele, a young Jewish girl who is sent overseas by her worried Russian parents to escape the threat of persecution. When she arrives in England, her identity is stripped away - she is fostered, re-named Suzie and strictly forbidden to speak her native tongue.

Ten years later, Suzie (Christina Ricci) flees to Paris to begin a new life and joins the chorus of a prestigious opera company. There she befriends Russian dancer, Lola (Cate Blanchett) and falls in love with a gypsy horse handler (Johnny Depp). As the Nazi threat intensifies, Suzie is once again forced to flee the life that she has created and to leave all that she loves behind. A powerful story of love, loss and one woman's search to find her place in a world of turmoil.

Synopsis
Set in 1927, this is the story of a young Jewish girl who was sent from Russia to England where she was adopted by a family who re-named her Suzie. When Suzie reaches adulthood she sets off for a new life in Paris where she works with an opera company. Her happiness is short-lived and she is forced to move on again when the Nazi invasion begins and she must leave everything that she loves behind.

Customer Reviews

A beautiful and sensitive movie
A beautiful and sensitive movie about a Jewish child , Faygele (Claudia Lander-Duke) , in Russia , in 1927 , whose father emigrates to the USA , intending to send for his family later.

However , in the meantime , Faygele's shtetl is burned to the ground by the Communists , and most of it's inhabitants slaughtered.
Faygele is spirited to England , where she is renamed Suzie , and brought up in the British middle class.
As a young lady (Christina Ricci) Suzie makes her way to Paris , where she makes a career from her talent for singing and dancing.
She is befriended by a fellow dancer Lola (Cate Blanchett) , and is romanced by a dark brooding gypsey horseman Cesar ( Johnny Depp)
When the Nazis storm into Paris , Suzie is betrayed by the villainous Italian opera singer Dante (John Turturro) and must now decide how to deal with the danger, given her Jewish background.

A wonderful exploration of how human lives are affected by upheaval.

visually stunning gem
This kind of film will either leave you feeling moved or feeling bored. I luckily was taken with this film straight away. It does narrate in quite a slow pace, but it does it with maturity and elegance.
It tackles a rather tricky subject naimly the war. We first meet Ricci's character as a young girl living in Russia with her father. These scenes of rural life are particuarly visually stunning and capture the mood of the place to the full. Her life then changes when a man from the village comes back with tales of jobs and prosperity in America. Ricci's character is then left with her grandmother.
Riots then fall upon Russia and the little girl is sent on to where they think is America but is in fact London.
Several years later and Riccis character is desperate to find her father in America, so she joins a dance group in order to fund her way there. She ends up in France. Other characters in this part of the film are Blanchett who is exquisite as a Russian temptress and Depp as the sultry and silent gypsy.
Depp once again is quite happy to be in the background of a film, yet through his pure genius in silent acting takes the film with his role.He is not only beautiful to look at he also has so much meaning and power in the way he manages to say so much with such a little vocab. Ricci too for once manages to hold her English accent for a while enough to pull the part off. This is a visual stunner with enough heart in it to make you feel for the characters particuarly Depp and Blanchett. Dont watch this film if you have a low attention span or cant sit through films that are artistically visual in their meaning. however if you enjoy the slow paced film watch this its packed with beauty and life, it also has a strong story and meaning behind it which finishes in a thought-provoking haunting way

Thought provoking and moving
I found this film both thought provoking and moving, yet on a subtle level. It is not an intensified expose of religious and social persecution, in comparison to the harsh realities expressed by so many of such genre. However this film's success lies in its ability to connect the audience with a variety of characters, thus allowing identification with the individuals concerned and the tribulations which they encounter. Although key elements of social and political upheaval construct the fundamental theme throughout, a greater emphasis is placed upon the personal quest of the protagonist (Fegele), played by Christina Ricci. This film offers a sophisticated account which highlights the struggle to maintain and defend one's true identity, from a variety of cultural perspectives.