Product Details

• Actors: Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, Oleg Yankovskiy, Claudia Lander-Duke, Danny Scheinmann
• Directors: Sally Potter
• Writers: Sally Potter
• Producers: Christopher Sheppard, Eric Fellner, Linda Bruce, Simona Benzakein, Tim Bevan
• Format: PAL
• Language: English, French, Italian, Romanian, Russian, Yiddish
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004CMZS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #690,585 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

205 of 210 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sleeper of astonishing colour and beauty, March 31, 2002

By 

Sarah - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Man Who Cried (DVD)

"The Man Who Cried" is a feast for the eyes and ears alike. One recent review called it "the art-house companion to Moulin Rouge," and that doesn't seem too far off. The film begins with Fegele and her father in 1927 Russia, with a beautifully photographed game of hide and seek. Fearing for his family's safety, her father sends her away to America, but Fegele ends up in England by mistake, is renamed Suzie and is raised by a grim British couple. The scenes of the Russian shtetl are grim, and colour truly doesn't become pronounced until we see the cabaret shows of Paris, the gaudy costumes and headdresses and the opera sets.

Suzie (Christina Ricci) runs into fellow showgirl Lola (Cate Blanchett) and the two room together, locking horns over Italian sensation Dante, the main draw at the theatre, who also happens to be a fascist. Lola gets her way and her man. Enter one very mysterious, brooding Gypsy horseman (Johnny Depp, reprising his role from Chocolat) who captures Suzie's heart. This entire whirlwind of music, passion and drama occurs on the eve of World War Two, and Suzie is in danger of being discovered as Jewish.

The cinematography is gorgeous, with washed-out colours in Russia, beautiful cityscapes of Paris (especially the bike/horse chase at night!), gaudily bright costumes and opera sets, the exotic colour, music and flair of the Gypsy camp and costumes. The colour brings to mind the brilliant Technicolour prints of the earlier days, with vibrant, surreal colours.

The soundtrack is equally stunning, with contributions by newcomer Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra, the Kronos Quartet, the Gypsy ensemble Taraf de Haidouks, and Czech songstress Iva Bittova providing the voice for Christina Ricci. The operatic selections by Bizet, Puccini, Purcell, and Verdi are balanced by original score (the stunning "Close Your Eyes" is the most beautiful song in the movie) and frantic Gypsy music. Bittova's "Gloomy Sunday" is a delightful study in atmosphere, and appropriately sets the tone for an onscreen event near the end of the film.

"The Man Who Cried" is an unusual, beautiful, and touching glimpse at a decadent Europe on the brink of war, the vibrant Gypsy culture, the Jewish shtetls of Russia, and the world of opera, all intertwined with romance and connections to the past.

80 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The waiter took my plate away..., June 2, 2002

By 

Spare-Time Critic "Deb" (New Orleans area, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man Who Cried (DVD)

...while I was still eating the main course! That's how I felt about this movie.

It's so beautiful, I WANTED to love it. I'm a Depp fan, and he and Ricci make a lovely couple. Cate Blanchett is looking her best, and the plot is interesting.

Fegele is a young Jewish woman who has been separated from her family as a child. Raised in England by distant foster parents, she longs to go to America to find her father, but has to earn enough money first. Along the way, she meets a smolderingly handsome gypsy (Depp), a kindhearted Russian gold-digger (Blanchett), and a very self-centered Italian opera singer (Turturro). Meanwhile, the Nazi menace is approaching, and it's no good time to be a Jew in Europe. So far, so good.

Unfortunately, you don't get a chance to really grab hold of this movie. Characters don't do much talking (well, except the opera singer, but who wants to hear him rant?). There's a lot of dialogue conducted via soulful looks and silent reproaches. All very nicely done, but it's up to you to figure out what characters are really thinking and feeling.

But here's thing that really bugged me: The ending. If you like to have the loose ends all tied up when the credits roll, you'll be disappointed. I felt the ending was rushed, and could've easily done with another 30 minutes or so. Instead, I was left wondering what would've happened next. If you don't mind that, rent the movie and enjoy it.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smoldering on Horseback, April 8, 2005

By 

Marie Moresero (Toronto, Ontario, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man Who Cried (DVD)

This film is for those Johnny Depp fans who were not fans of his during his days as a young Tom Hanson in 21 JumpStreet. He plays a brooding, sexy gypsy, with little dialogue and big expressive eyes, who roughly takes Christina Ricci's virginity in a dirty, torn armchair after sending her smoldering looks from the back of his white stallion. His departure from the movie leaves a very anticlimactic feeling, as we continue to follow Ricci's character Susie after she has walked away from the feigning-sleep Depp character. Our last glimpse of Depp's character Cesar, opening his eyes at her departure, left me thinking that the film was over, as I stopped caring what happened to Susie, Lola( Cate Blanchett) and Dante (John Turturro), and focused on what I imagined his fate would be as a gypsy in Nazi-occupied Paris. This movie, writen and directed by Sally Potter, clearly exploits the fantasy of the sexuality of handsome gypsy men, and left me (a 40-something yr. old academic who should know better) daydreaming of Cesar and I riding off on his horse. The young girl who plays Ricci as a child, distanced from her father and torn from her whole world life, is very touching to watch, and I cried as she smashed photos in her new foreign home. My biggest complaint about this film is that while Depp can act just by blinking his eyes, Ricci's similar acting style did not seem as convincing to me, and I waited for her to show more expression in her huge, blank, puppy-dog eyes. She did not seem as convincing in her role as Depp, Blanchett and Turturro did in theirs, and I was painfully embarrassed at her singing, which was mentioned throughout the film as if it was spectacular (it most definitely was not)! This is a film that shows another side of Depp, and those who only think of him as Edward Scissorhands, Gilbert Grape, or Captain Jack Sparrow should watch this for his final scene with Ricci, where he speaks volumes by remaining silent, and left me sighing with longing for this wonderful character.