THE MAN WHO CRIED:  I saw a remarkable film last night (Monday) and I hope you’ll all have the opportunity to catch it.   It opens in L.A. and New York this Friday and I’m not sure what the rest of the distribution pattern will look like.  But Sally Potter’s latest, The Man Who Cried, is truly sublime.  They are selling it as a romantic film centered on Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp.  And they do couple in the movie.  But the film really revolves around Ricci and her character’s journey, from the very first scene to the very last. 

One of the things that is so lovely about Potter’s work here (she wrote and directed) is that she tells her story on the huge canvas of the Russian pogroms and, later, the Nazi move across Europe.  Yet, the film remains an intimate look at people.  It’s never dogmatic.  It’s never cheap.  Ricci’s character is a jewess whose father leaves their village for America, planning to send for her and her grandmother later.   But Ricci is sent away to England as her grandmother anticipates the danger that surrounds them.  All she has is a gold coin and a photo of her father.  Eventually, her gift for singing is discovered.  As a grown-up, she enters show biz, hoping to earn enough to travel to America to find her father.

The bulk of the film takes place in Paris, as she teams up with the always-remarkable Cate Blanchett, who has never been better, as a Russian dancer whose fight for survival is quite different than Ricci’s, but equally interesting.  The men in their life are played by John Turturro, as a vainglorious Italian opera singer in an increasingly politically ambiguous France and Johnny Depp as a gypsy horseman.  (Yes, this is Depp’s second gypsy in a  row.  The other was an Irish gypsy in Chocolat.)   Both men also face their own challenges, some expected, others not.

In the press notes, Potter says that she hopes “that the film can serve as a voice for those who were (and are) silenced.”  One of the ways she gives the silenced voice is through their music, from jewish traditional to opera to gypsy to the film’s score. 

I don’t really want to say more about the film, except that it’s not about analysis… it’s about feeling.  Potter, unlike most, doesn’t batter you with what she wants you to feel.   As the lyrics of a song, this film is poetry.  I suspect it will linger with me long after its details would normally fade.  Beautiful.  (P.S. Terrible commercial title… sorry.)

SPEAKING OF QUALITY:  The 2001 MTV Movie Awards will be adding four new categories!!!  WOW!!!  How can you sleep?!?!  The new categories are Best Line From a Movie, Best Dressed, Best Music Moment and Best Cameo.  Woo hoo!!!  The taping in June 2.  The show is on MTV on June 7.  Get out those handkerchiefs.

A MATTER OF TIME:  This was pretty much inevitable.  The Japanese American Citizens League, America’s biggest Asian-American civil rights organization, is trying to get word out that people aren’t going to distinguish between the Japanese of WWII and Japanese Americans.  Not only doesn’t Pearl Harbor deal with the interment camps that Asian Americans suffered in during that error – though I completely understand that, since it’s about Pearl Harbor and not so much the aftermath – but apparently there is a Japanese American character who seems to be providing info for the attack when in real life, that man, a dentist, was cleared of the charges by the FBI.  

Interestingly, Disney plans on making some adjustments to the international release of the film.  One, that Jerry Bruckheimer pointed out to a reporter, is the removal of a scene that has Jimmy Doolittle saying that he would aim his plane to kill Japanese civilians if he had to ditch over Japan.  I hate to point that out, but  that’s a cut that makes Americans look less cruel, not the Japanese.  I actually find that kind of offensive.  I mean, at least they had the balls to embrace the aggression in the version we’ll see. 

I also found Ben Affleck’s quote to Reuters to be exactly what makes those who are being sensitive – perhaps hypersensitive – so upset.  He said, “This isn't a History Channel expose, and there are mediums available that are better suited to showing this in greater detail.”  Yeah, well, f**k you too.  Why not just say that this is an emotional movie told from the point of view of a nation that sees itself as the victim, period.  Of course the story is biased.  Movies tend to be told form one point of view.  So be it.  But don’t patronize us by sending us to the History Channel. 

COOL:  Great story about how the business dealings behind Alec Baldwin’s directing debut, The Devil and Daniel Webster has gone awry.  Read it and weep… laughing.  (Click here.)

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS:  I love the idea of Mike DeLuca coming to DreamWorks, essentially replacing Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes.  I’ve got to tell you, the dynamic duo, who are giving up some of their responsibilities as they take on some non-DreamWorks productions, has not helped the studio build up their reputation amongst filmmakers.  DreamWorks had a big year last year, but artist relations questions about the handling of the company’s fall movies almost all led back to this pair.   DeLuca is known as a friend to talent and in every dealing I’ve ever had with him, he has been remarkably supportive of the people who work with him, even in a case like Tony Kaye’s, where the talent was shooting at him at every turn.  Parkes and MacDonald are very, very talented executives, don’t get me wrong.  But DeLuca is a guy who can return the image of the studio being incredibly talent friendly back, in perception and reality.  And I applaud Jeffrey Katzenberg, in particular, for being willing to bring in such a high-profile, high-style player into what has traditionally been a fairly close-to-the-vest DreamWorks family.   I hope the deal gets done.

STOP OR MY GRANDPA WILL SHOOT!:  Charlton Heston was elected to top the NRA for a fourth term this week.  You know, it’s kind of sad to know that a guy who had such an interesting and prolific career will end up remembered primarily for his interest in making sure that people had easy access to weapons of death.  I’m sure that some of you are really pro gun rights.  And I will respect your opinions.   But the more I think about it, the more I believe that gun availability kills.  I just don’t see any reason for legal handguns or semi-automatic or automatic weapons.  Then again, I never started smoking and I’ve never had a drug or alcohol problem, so maybe I’m just naïve.  (Yeah.)

READER OF THE DAY:  Not The Woodman:  “Love your column; thought I'd give you something to read that's not about Michael Bay.  So from one Moulin Rouge fan to another, enjoy. Call me Alvy Singer:

I've only seen Moulin Rouge once and I can already unequivocally say that I love it and will be seeing it again many times.  It is the work of a director at the height of his powers; the camerawork, the editing, the production design, and the soundtrack are all extraordinary.  Baz Luhrmann already proved he was a good filmmaker on a limited budget, now on a large budget he proves himself a great one (like David O. Russell and Three Kings).  I think the best part about the film is that it is the only Hollywood musical made in the last two decades that has the guts to be an out and out musical. Whenever attempts have been made in the past to revive the genre, the musical elements have always been downplayed (or in the case of I'll do Anything eliminated entirely) or it becomes a "revisionist" musical like Everyone Says I Love You or Dancer in the Dark where the genre's aesthetic is critiqued while it is being imitated. 

But Luhrmann goes for broke and makes an old-fashioned musical (albeit with new fashioned technology) and I think that may be why the film has been encountering a mixed reaction.  People were expecting Dancer in the Dark (which I also loved, but for different reasons), not West Side Story.  Is the story simplistic?  Yes, but so is the story in Singing in the Rain.  Besides, musicals have never been about story, they've been about mood, style, and above all, the celebration of song.  On all those levels and more Moulin Rouge is a breakthrough film. It will be studied and appreciated for years when this summer's other would-be blockbusters (cough Pearl Harbor cough) are gathering dust on video shelves.

And this from Little Stevie:  “My question is why people think Pearl Harbor is going to be blockbuster? Haven't we seen this film a dozen times already? TV movies? Feature films? How many times can they write this same movie over and over again? (Fake romances, people scuttling across the tarmacs, bombs dropping?) What am I missing, the fact that modern technology will show everything blowing REALLY really good?”

E ME:  Will you go to the biggest theater you can find and stand on the big line for PH this weekend?