The Man Who Cried

Slowly making my way through my "must-see" list. However I am dependent on the stock at my local video place - which tends towards the Hollywood blockbuster over anything smaller or more arty. *sigh*

Anyway, this week I've rented The Man Who Cried. I think I need to watch it again to fully absorb it, but I did mostly love it the first time. "mostly", because some sequences feel a bit like something is missing - as if some moments have had to be cut during editing for time, leaving out some peripheral information.

I was really impressed with Christina Ricci. I'd never noticed how beautiful she is. Those big eyes are very emotive and transparent, and the character was very truthful.

Cate Blanchett played her flirty, advantage-taking character to perfection.

Cesar wasn't, I don't think, one of Johnny Depp's best roles. I felt for him and desperately wanted he and Suzie to make it, but I wasn't nearly as affected by him as I usually am by Johnny's acting. Perhaps this was because of the aforementioned "missing moments" - I really felt that I wanted and needed to know more of Cesar and his family in order to really care for him in more than a shallow way.

I recall Johnny saying in an interview that he finds love scenes very uncomfortable, and especially mentioning this film because of how young Christina was (she would have been only 19 or 20 and Johnny 37 or so). So I was impressed to see a more realistic love scene than we usually see in films. It was a very truthful moment between Suzie and Cesar.
You know how so many films portray sex as a beautiful, simple, ecstatic thing? Well, in The Man Who Cried we see it in more of a real way; sometimes dull, sometimes uncomfortable and painful, sometimes quite a big event emotionally.

The film was quite evocative of war and the issues surrounding it. I really hated John Turturro's character, Dante, but he played him well. His was a story that made me remember with a shock that there really are people that narrow-minded, prejudiced and selfish in the world. Films do that to me sometimes; films that cover stories of appalling human behaviour, and everytime it shocks me to remember that people really can be truly horrible.

Anyway I shall watch it again, enjoy the carefree gypsy scenes and ignore the stifling Italians and Germans.