Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5216 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

The man who cried
It is always a little difficult for me to be objective, as I am an avid Johnny Depp fan, but I must say that I was spellbound by this film. The atmosphere is enchanting and the photography is outstanding. Additionally, the cast are all high caliber and deliver quite outstanding performances.
As another reviewer commented, the actors didn't all get a chance to develop their characters, but then the film is about the experiences of Suzie, the young Jewish girl played very convincingly by Ricci, with other characters being milestones -though important ones- in her journey. If you cry easily then you probably will. Not because the film is soppy in any way, but the storyline is just very sad, and you get to feel what the characters are going through.
Johnny's role reminded me a little of his part in Chocolat, i.e. gypsy outcast, but here it is a much more tragic and intense character.
Overall an impressive film, and I can certainly recommend it.

A despicable traitor and a narrow escape
The film tries to bring together four different types of refugees. Southern Italians who migrated to Northern Italy and became mussolinians. Russian female dancers who fled away from the Bolshevik revolution and are ready to use their bodies to get acquainted with rich people, no matter what. Russian Jews, representing all Jews, running away from persecution, Russian or German, communist or nazi. Gypsies who are at home nowhere and are always shuddering in front of some danger but always fighting with their one and only family, for their one and only family, for survival. And the film covers about 15 years of European history starting in 1927. It is a very sad film with negative events and persecution adding up, year after year to a total deculturization that is imposed onto all those who do not fit - the very word used by the Welsh teacher who will teach Fegele-Suzy how to sing and who was punished for speaking Welsh in school - in the normalized society in which they live. And yet, deep in the deepest depth of one's soul there is an island or a cavern where one is what one has always been and will always be. It is called resilience and the film is a marvelous example of such resilience. One can always survive in one's mind if one believes in the power of human memory: never forget the past, just cultivate it in your mind's eye and it will come back one day. The film is also a powerful lesson of love. Love is the power to convince the one you love to run away from danger and live, though you have to stay behind and fight. And the man who loves Fegele-Suzy that much can cry all night when she sleeps in their last night together and pretend he is asleep when she is ready to go. And yet the film never gets sentimentalese. It remains extremely pure, perfect and does not waste time and energy on self-pity or pathetic schmaltzy compassion.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne

truely moving
The story is based around the life of a young Jewish girl (Ricci) and the struggles she has to suffer through. Firstly she is sent to England and renamed Suzie when her home becomes too dangerous. She then moves to Paris to join a theatre company where she befriends Cate Blanchette and meets the mysterious Johnny Depp. She falls in love with Depp but then has to make heart wrenching decisions when a world war moves closer.

This is a truly haunting movie that really sticks with you forever. I have to admit that this isn’t my normal type of movie and I bought it because I am a fan Depp, but there is no way to watch this movie and not at least feel for Ricci and the decisions she has to make to survive. The costumes and atmosphere of the movie are brilliant and really add to the overall effect, so this film is worth a watch, as you won’t be disappointed