SALLY POTTER
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBBB.
United Kingdom/France, 2000. Canal+, Universal Pictures, Adventure Pictures, Working Title Films. Screenplay by Sally Potter. Cinematography by Sacha Vierny. Produced by Christopher Sheppard. Music by Osvaldo Golijov. Production Design by Carlos Conti. Costume Design by Lindy Hemming. Film Editing by Herve Schneid. National Board of Review Awards 2001.
Poetic melodrama from director Sally Potter that follows the plight of an orphaned Russian Jewish girl (Christina Ricci) raised by a childless couple in London in the thirties. As an adult she works her way as a singer in Paris to pay for her passage to America to find the father she lost as a child. In Paris she befriends fortune hunter Cate Blanchett, conceited opera singer John Turturro and sexy gypsy Johnny Depp, with whom she has a love affair. The photography is beautiful, the music exceptional, and Ricci has really never been better. Her understated performance is what this film really needs to keep itself together, while Blanchett proves herself to be Meryl Streep’s greatest threat with her dead-on accent as the selfish Russian singer, and Depp adds just the right touches of mystery and sex appeal. Pablo Verón, the singer Potter highlighted in her divine Tango Lesson, has a small part as a dancer in a bar Ricci goes to. Very moving drama, with a perfect ending.
