''The Man Who Cried'' is a 2000

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

written and directed by

Sally Potter Charlotte Sally Potter (born 19 September 1949) is an English film director and screenwriter. She is known for directing ''Orlando'' (1992), which won the audience prize for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. Early life Potter was born an ...

, and starring

Christina Ricci Christina Ricci ( ; born February 12, 1980) is an American actress. Known for playing unusual characters with a dark edge, Ricci predominantly works in independent productions, but has also appeared in numerous box office hits. She has receive ...

Cate Blanchett Catherine Elise Blanchett (; born 14 May 1969) is an Australian actor. Regarded as one of the finest performers of her generation, she is known for her versatile work across independent films, blockbusters, and the stage. She has received n ...

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Johnny Depp, multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

Harry Dean Stanton Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 – September 15, 2017) was an American actor, musician, and singer. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films including ''Cool Hand Luke'' (1967), ''Kelly's Heroes ...

and

John Turturro John Michael Turturro (; born February 28, 1957) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his contributions to the independent film movement. He has appeared in over sixty feature films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, ...

. The film tells the story of a young Jewish girl who, after being separated from her father in

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

, grows up in England. As a young adult, she moves to Paris (shortly before the beginning of World War II). This marks the third time Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci have worked together. It is the last film worked on by the French

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

Sacha Vierny Sacha Vierny (10 August 1919 – 15 May 2001) was a French cinematographer. He was born in Bois-le-Roi, Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France, and died in Paris, France, at the age of 81. He is most famous for his work with Alain Resnais – espe ...

Plot

Fegele Abramovich (

), a Russian Jew is separated from her father (

Oleg Yankovsky Oleg Ivanovich Yankovsky (russian: Оле́г Ива́нович Янко́вский; 23 February 1944 – 20 May 2009) was a Soviet and Russian actor who excelled in psychologically sophisticated roles of modern intellectuals. In 1991, he beca ...

) as a child in 1927. Her father has travelled to America to seek his fortune and plans to send for Fegele and her grandmother. Before leaving, he sings "Je Crois Entendre Encore" from the

Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', which has become on ...

opera ''

Les pêcheurs de perles ' (''The Pearl Fishers'') is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was premiered on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances ...

'' to her. After her father leaves, the village is attacked and burned in a

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...

. Fegele escapes with the help of neighbours; after overcoming many obstacles, she is crowded onto a boat headed for Britain, with only a photo of her father and a coin given to her by her grandmother. Upon arrival, an English official renames her "Susan" and places her with foster parents. English students at school taunt her by calling her a "gypsy", but she does not yet understand English. A teacher at the school overhears her singing "Je Crois Entendre Encore" in Yiddish, and teaches her to sing and speak in English. Time passes, and Suzie auditions for a singing dance troupe heading for Paris. There, she meets an older Russian dancer named Lola (

), and they share an apartment as friends. At a formal party, both women perform as dancers alongside a mysterious performing horseman, Cesar (

), a

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

to whom Suzie is attracted. After their performance outside, they overhear a tenor inside singing "Je Crois Entendre Encore"; the voice belongs to Dante (

), an Italian opera singer who immediately catches Lola's eye. Lola works her way into his good graces and falls for his charms, enticed by his wealth and success. Dante, Lola, Suzie, and Cesar all work for an opera company directed by Felix Perlman (

). Dante is an imperious follower of Mussolini; this alienates him from Suzie even as he becomes Lola's lover. Meanwhile, Cesar introduces Suzie to his "family" (essentially his entire tribe), and they fall in love. One day, Dante is rifling through Suzie's things after a dalliance with Lola in the apartment, and deduces her Jewish heritage after finding her father's photo. An elderly Jewish neighbour downstairs, Madame Goldstein ( Miriam Karlin), also knows that Suzie is Jewish and has warned her of the dangers on the horizon as the Germans invade Poland. The following year, as the Germans invade France and approach Paris, an exodus begins of Jews and other people threatened by

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

. Crowds for the operatic show dwindle, and eventually the only cast members left are Dante and Suzie. When Dante attempts to seduce Suzie, she rebuffs him. He lashes out at her for her heritage and her relationship with Cesar, whose heritage he also scorns. Perlman comes to her defence; he reminds Dante that as an Italian in Paris at that time, should Mussolini align with the Nazis, Dante's own position in Paris would be precarious. Perlman closes down the show; the Nazis enter Paris the following morning. Dante reluctantly returns to his earlier role as minstrel. After another rebuff from Suzie, Dante reveals to a German officer that Suzie is a Jew. Lola overhears this and informs Suzie that she is in danger and must leave Paris. Lola has also decided to leave Dante and has purchased tickets for Suzie and herself on an ocean liner headed for America. The same night of the party, the Nazis attack the Romani village and kill a child. When Cesar comes to her apartment to say goodbye, Suzie expresses her desire to stay and help Cesar fight the Nazis for his family, but he tells her she must flee and find her father. They share a tender last evening together. Suzie searches for her father and discovers that he changed his name, gave up singing, and moved west after hearing about the attack on his home village, which he assumed killed all the members of his family. Suzie goes to Hollywood, where her father was a studio head, and discovers he has a new family and that he is dying. She goes to the hospital, walks past his new wife and children who are waiting outside the door to his room, and is reunited with her father. He recognises her and expresses joy at her appearance. She sits on the side of his bed and sings "Je Crois Entendre Encore" to him in Yiddish as tears roll down her face.

Cast

as Suzie *

as Father * Claudia Lander-Duke as Young Suzie *

as Lola * Miriam Karlin as Madame Goldstein *

as Cesar *

as Felix Perlman *

as Dante Dominio * Josh Bradford as extra The singing voices for the characters of Dante and Suzie were provided by Salvatore Licitra and Iva Bittova, respectively.

Release

The film was first presented at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

on 2 September 2000. The film screened at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

; the

Mar del Plata Film Festival The Mar del Plata International Film Festival ( es, Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata) is an international film festival that takes place every November in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. It is the only competitive feature fest ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

; the

Tokyo International Film Festival The is a film festival established in 1985. The event was held biennially from 1985 to 1991 and annually thereafter. Along with the Shanghai International Film Festival, it is one of Asia's competitive film festivals, and is considered to be the ...

& the Reykjavik Film Festival,

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

among others.

Reception

The film received mixed to negative reviews, currently holding a 35% 'rotten' rating on review aggregate

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

. The consensus, based on 69 reviews, says 'The storyline is overwrought and awkward, and the audience is distanced from the flatly drawn characters.'

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

calculated an average score of 40 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Awards

;Wins *

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

: NBR Award; Best Supporting Actress, Cate Blanchett; 2001. *

Florida Film Critics Circle Awards The Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC) is a film critic organization founded in 1996. The FFCC comprises 30 film critics from Florida-based print and online publications. At the end of each year, the FFCC members vote on the Florida Film Critics ...

: FFCC Award; Best Supporting Actress, Cate Blanchett; 2002. ;Nominations *

: Golden Lion, Sally Potter; 2000.

Soundtrack

''The Man Who Cried: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack'' was released 22 May 2001. It features new music composed by

Osvaldo Golijov Osvaldo Noé Golijov (; born December 5, 1960) is an Argentine composer of classical music and music professor, known for his vocal and orchestral work. Biography Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family ...

, and was produced by

and performed by the Royal Opera House Orchestra Covent Garden, Salvatore Licitra, and

Taraf de Haïdouks Taraful Haiducilor ("Taraf of Haiduks") are a Romanian-Romani '' taraf'' (a troupe of '' lăutari'', traditional musicians) from Clejani, Romania, and one of the most prominent such groups in post-Communist era Romania. In the Western world they ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Man Who Cried, The 2000 films 2000 romantic drama films 2000s English-language films Focus Features films 2000s French-language films Working Title Films films 2000s Italian-language films 2000s Spanish-language films Romani-language films 2000s Romanian-language films 2000s Russian-language films StudioCanal films Yiddish-language films Films directed by Sally Potter Films shot at Pinewood Studios British romantic drama films Films set in the 1920s Films based on British novels Films shot in Surrey Films shot in Paris Films set in the 1930s 2000 multilingual films British multilingual films French multilingual films 2000s British films