Mistitled, The Man Who Cried is about a woman and two men who cry at three poignant moments in the film, which already impressed European audiences as Les larmes d’un homme before cautiously opening at a few cinemas in Los Angeles. At the center of the story is Fegele (played as a child by Claudia Lander-Duke), who was born into a Yiddish-speaking rural community in the Russian part of the Soviet Union. Although abandoned as a child in 1927 by a father (played by Oleg Yankovsky) bound for America, she hangs onto his picture in hopes that they will be reunited some day. Soon, she herself departs as the Soviets burn the village of Jews. Although preferring to go to America, she arrives in England, where she is renamed Susan at the port and then adopted by an austere English family. A misfit at school, her beautiful singing voice is discovered by a teacher (played by Alan David), and in 1939 Suzie (now played by Christina Ricci) is recruited to play a role in a Paris cabaret and subsequently becomes a regular in the chorus of the Paris Opera. While in Paris (where much of the movie is filmed), she is befriended by Lola (played by Cate Blanchett), a Russian émigré who is also a cabaret performer and member of the opera chorus. Lola moves into her small apartment, which is run by Madame Goldstein (played by Miriam Karlin). While Lola tries to play up to fascist-sympathizing prima donna opera star Dante Dominio (played by John Turturro), Susan is impressed with the quiet sensuality of César (played by Johnny Depp), a gypsy who rides a white horse to give the operas a more visually striking appearance, thus pandering to the demands of Paris audiences. Dante objects to performing in a circus after the horse defecates on stage, even going so far as to object to the presence of a gypsy in the cast, but Suzie comes to César’s defense, one of her few spoken lines; indeed, the communitarian atmosphere of gypsies reminds her of the stetl of her early years in the Soviet Union. In contrast, flamboyant Lola navigates herself into the high life of Paris, that is, until dumped by César after he became bored with having sex with her. In due course, the Nazis march into Paris, round up Jews, including Mrs. Goldstein, and terrorize the gypsy encampment. Holding a British passport, Suzie is not suspected of being a Jew until betrayed by Dante in retaliation for her preference for César. Thereupon, Lola buys two tickets for them to sail to America together. When César says goodbye to Suzie, he becomes the first man who cries in the film, but he insists that she must leave or suffer the same fate as Madame Goldstein. After the ship sets sail, it is bombed, leaving Suzie in the water surrounded by fire (a scene that strangely begins the film), but Suzie is rescued and lands in New York. Her search for her father leads her to Hollywood, where her father has become a film executive. But he is now on his deathbed. She then goes to the hospital to see her father, they both cry, and the film ends. Directed and written by Sally Potter, The Man Who Cried continues the trend in recent Hollywood films of describing the fate of Jews under the Nazis, this time focusing on conditions in France, but the mistreatment of gypsies is also highlighted. Opera lovers will enjoy hearing many arias lip-synched by John Turturro. MH