The Man Who Cried
About the Film
As a child in 1927, a Russian Jewish girl is torn from her father, who leaves for America promising to send for her. Instead she is swept up in a pogrom, put on a boat and raised in England under a new name, Suzie, clinging to the memory of her father and the songs he sang. As a young woman she makes her way to Paris on the eve of the Second World War, joining an opera company as a chorus dancer.
There she befriends the ambitious Russian showgirl Lola, clashes with a vain Italian tenor, and falls in love with Cesar, a proud Romani horseman who performs with the company. But the shadow of the coming Nazi occupation threatens them all — Jews and Roma alike — and Suzie is forced to flee once more, carrying her love and her father’s memory across the ocean in a final search for the family she lost.
Plot synopsis by johnny-depp.org.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp plays Cesar, a quiet, watchful Romani horseman and performer who becomes Suzie’s lover in pre-war Paris. It is a largely wordless, soulful role — Depp conveys Cesar’s dignity and tenderness through presence and gesture rather than dialogue — and the character’s Roma identity places him, like Suzie, among those most endangered by the rising tide of fascism.
Cast & Crew
Cast
SuzieChristina Ricci
CesarJohnny Depp
LolaCate Blanchett
Dante DominioJohn Turturro
Felix PerlmanHarry Dean Stanton
FatherOleg Yankovskiy
Crew
Director / WriterSally Potter
MusicOsvaldo Golijov
CinematographySacha Vierny
ProducerChristopher Sheppard
StudioStudioCanal / Working Title Films
Filming Locations
- Paris, France
- Studio work in the United Kingdom
More about this film
Trivia
- It was the final film of the celebrated cinematographer Sacha Vierny (a longtime collaborator of Alain Resnais and Peter Greenaway).
- The singing voices were dubbed — Salvatore Licitra for the tenor Dante and Iva Bittová for Suzie.
- Writer-director Sally Potter is best known for the acclaimed Orlando (1992).
- The film premiered in competition at the 2000 Venice Film Festival.
