Mar 03, 2003 02:17 PM
1554 Views
(Updated Mar 03, 2003 02:20 PM)
When surfing channels this saturday I just happened to see Johnny Depp's name in the cast....its is good enough to keep on glued to the screen. However, the story turned out to be on Christina Ricci who plays the role of girl in search of her father & her travel
from England ~ America during which she meets many people who are like her; some love/help her, some use/betray her
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The Story :
The time is 1927, a little jewish girl Fegele is living with her father & grandmother in a Russian village when one day her father has to flee the village to escape persecution, he leaves for United States to find work & with intention of calling his mother & daughter when he has enough money. However, destiny has some other plans ; Fegele's grandma is killed in the violence that follows & Fegele alongwith other villagers leaves for America but lands up on a ship for England. Here Fegele is placed at a foster home where she is forbidden to speak Yiddish & is renamed as Suzie. She learns singing in school & decides to go to Paris to earn enough money to travel to America, to find her Father.
Ten years pass & Suzie [Christina Ricci] now leaves England for Paris, where she becomes a chorus singer & meets a beautiful ambitious Russian dancer, Lola [Cate Blanchett]. They get work at a opera for a famous tenor Dante, an arrogant & self obsessed man. Lola becomes Dante's lover in the hope of bettering her career and gaining security. Suzie too falls in love with a gypsy, Cesar (Johnny Depp).
When Dante discovers that Suzie is jewish, he threatens to turn her in. Suzie is then helped by her friend Lola who leaves Dante & offers Suzie a ticket to go to America with her. Suzie is now faced with a decision of whether she should risking persecution by staying back with her lover Ceaser or fulfill her life-long dream of searching her father in an unknown country...........
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The Film/Performances:
Directed by Sally Potter, this high quality film is set in war time & has lots of emotions which have been told in a manner that is simple but much effective. Since the film's main characters are singers there is lots of Italian opera, gypsy dances which make the film different from rest of war films.
Christina Ricci is a child-woman actresses & she has excellently portrayed the role of a girl who never gets a chance to be happy but is still a strong person right till the end. Her characters is one who speaks less but its her long silences that speak the loudest & mostly through her eyes.
Johnny Depp has very few scenes in the film and whenever he appears onscreen, one cannot see anything else except the always photogenic handsome gypsy Depp. Like Ricci, he too hardly speaks in the but conveys all with his eyes & facial expressions. The Man who cried is the second time for Christina Ricci & Johnny Depp have been paired [Sleepy Hollow was the first film) & once again, together they generate superb chemistry.
Cate Blanchett plays a opportunist yet good-at-heart showgirl & a true friend. I loved her accent in the film & she looks stunning too!
The Man Who Cried is a moving & visually stunning film from beginning to end, with an excellent cast & score to enhance the film.
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My Word
I started watching this film for Johnny Depp but ended up liking the role & superb performance of Christina Ricci. I never heard of this film before so guess it didn't create much magic on the box office. Me thinks it would've been a big hit if it was titled 'The girl who cried'.
If you get a chance, watch this one coz star movies alwayz keeps repeating its best movies :)
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