Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried

The Man Who Cried (2000)
Seen: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

What's striking to me about director Sally Potter's work, which I admittedly know not that much about, is the tightness of her film's settings and the mood they convey. The Man Who Cried (2000) is the third Potter film I've seen and it couldn't be more different than the rest that came before it. To begin, we're transported to a different era and historical time period: war time France, and though it has a feeling distinctly separate from films made in that actual setting during that actual time period, the feeling of its setting is so cold and bleak it has an uncanny familiarity, or sense of reality. Its lead characters Susie, a Russian immigrant, her roomate, Lola, and Susie's love interest, Cesar, are played by ultra-modern actors, Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchette and Johnny Depp, respectively. All of which is to say that upon initially meeting these characters they are recognizable celebrities we find in ubiquity on the cover of magazines. Rather quickly, I think, however, this cast of celebrities melts away into the story, their survival in and escape from Nazi occupied Paris.

In fact, the entire cast and crew is an amazing combination of the latter half of the century's finest figures in film history. With the influence and artistic vision of the individuals physically crafting the film, it might not be that surprising to see how the actors' celebrity image so quickly sheds from the screen. Director of Photography, Sacha Vierny, the renowned cinematographer who worked with Luis Bunuel on Belle de jour (1967), Alain Resnais on Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Hiroshima mon amour (1959), and Night and Fog (1955) (to my mind the most devastating Holocaust film made to date); and with Agnes Varda on L'Opéra mouffe (1958), and later with Peter Greenaway on The Pillow Book (1996) and Prospero's Books (1991); this guy is a walking film history text, and here he is in our own age shooting what was to be the last film before his death, The Man Who Cried.

There's no shortage of talent in the editing room either, which was occupied on this film by Herve Schneid. His work has most widely been seen in the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (The City of Lost Children (1995) and Amelie (2001). In short, this is one of those films where it is worthwhile to pore over the credit sheet, find the connections of its contributors and trace back through films previous how the one before us came to be.

Before I typed up these loose thoughts and observations on Potter's film, I scanned its initial reviews online, which in sum didn't describe anything overwhelmingly great (Elvis Mitchell straight-up panned the thing). Even if her movie isn't my next Ghost Busters (1984)--which is to say a movie I'll pop in and watch again and again and again, ad nauseam--I found it far above the standards of most general releases, in terms of style, technique, story, and most interestingly to me, for the incredible cast of historical players.