Sally Potter's film about uprooted people searching for something like a home during the 1930s and 40s is worth seeing, although not completely flawless.
To begin with the positive aspects: The first 20 minutes or so are brilliantly filmed and absolutely fascinating. Short scenes, almost without any words (except some short dialogues in Yiddish) show how a little Jewish-Russian girl gets to England (where she is called Suzie) although she is supposed to follow her father to America. More than one question remains unanswered during these scenes but strangely enough that doesn't matter. Those sequences resemble fragments which seem to emerge right from Suzie's childhood memory: Crucial moments are kept in mind, not everything can be understood by a kid. The main part of the film portrays Suzie's life as a singer and dancer at an opera house in Paris and her love to a Gypsy horseman (Johnny Depp). Christina Ricci (more beautiful than ever before) is great in her role as Suzie: Her minimal yet intense acting successfully keeps the viewer's attention on her face.
But unfortunately the film suffers from a couple of logical mistakes (just to mention one of them: Why is one of the subordinate characters arrested before the Germans have reached Paris?). Furthermore, in my opinion the Nazi threat to the Jews as well as to the Gypsies is depicted in a far too superficial way. Yet the sudden but touching end of the film compensates for some of those weaknesses. On the whole, I have rated this film 7 out of 10.
To begin with the positive aspects: The first 20 minutes or so are brilliantly filmed and absolutely fascinating. Short scenes, almost without any words (except some short dialogues in Yiddish) show how a little Jewish-Russian girl gets to England (where she is called Suzie) although she is supposed to follow her father to America. More than one question remains unanswered during these scenes but strangely enough that doesn't matter. Those sequences resemble fragments which seem to emerge right from Suzie's childhood memory: Crucial moments are kept in mind, not everything can be understood by a kid. The main part of the film portrays Suzie's life as a singer and dancer at an opera house in Paris and her love to a Gypsy horseman (Johnny Depp). Christina Ricci (more beautiful than ever before) is great in her role as Suzie: Her minimal yet intense acting successfully keeps the viewer's attention on her face.
But unfortunately the film suffers from a couple of logical mistakes (just to mention one of them: Why is one of the subordinate characters arrested before the Germans have reached Paris?). Furthermore, in my opinion the Nazi threat to the Jews as well as to the Gypsies is depicted in a far too superficial way. Yet the sudden but touching end of the film compensates for some of those weaknesses. On the whole, I have rated this film 7 out of 10.