Review of Cyrano De Bergerac (1990)

Introduction

Cyrano de Bergerac is a famous French play, written by poet Edmond Rostand in 1897. Based on a real person of the same name who lived 1619 and 1655, de Bergerac (in the play) is a renowned poet who is also a superb duellist with his sword. Despite his prowess with both the spoken word and sword, he suffers from terrible self-confidence when it comes to his love-life. This problem stems from the fact that he has a rather large nose, and therefore loathes the ugliness he thinks that everyone sees. Cyrano de Bergerac (Gérard Depardieu) is in love with his cousin Roxanne (Anne Brochet), but dares not reveal his love as he believes she will laugh at him for thinking that she could return love for someone with a big nose.

Cyrano is a big critic of the theatre and storms the opening of a new play to hound the primary actor Montfleury from the stage, a man he detests. This initial entrance of the great man signals the arrival of the classic self-deprecation of his out-sized appendage, that most people will be familiar with due to Steve Martin having a go in the film Roxanne with Darryl Hannah.

Cyrano doesn`t know what to do, but then by chance meets up with Christian (Vincent Perez) who is also in love with Roxanne. Christian looks to Cyrano for help and advice, whilst Cyrano sees the opportunity to woo Roxanne through his new friend. He seems resigned to knowing that if he can`t have her himself, then he will use his words to ensure she can hear his love for her, despite knowing that Christian will make off with the prize.

This is the film that broke Gérard Depardieu in the US. He was a big star in French cinema throughout the 70`s and 80`s, but this role garnered him attention in the only place that sadly seems to count within the film industry at large.

Video

The cinematography on this film is superb, with good use of lighting throughout. As a reward for his work here, Pierre Lhomme won both a BAFTA and Best Cinematography from the British Society of Cinematographers.

The costumes are also quite remarkable (a lot designed specifically for this film) and with 2000 actors and extras required for this film, there must have been huge pressure on Franca Squarciapino who won the solitary Oscar for this film for Best Costume Design. Quite a feat when you consider she was up against Zeferelli`s Hamlet and Dances With Wolves.

Audio

Sumptuous and epic score by Jean-Claude Petit, for which he won a BAFTA in 1992. Only the original soundtrack in French is available, alongside only English subtitles. You need to hear this film in its original language to grasp the texture of the script and acting, the subtitles just allow you to understand what is being played out on the screen in front of you.

Features

Interview with Jean-Pierre Rappeneau - 8 ½ minute interview with the director in which he mainly talks about the 1923 silent film of the same story by Augusto Genina, which he used as a reference point for his film. In French with English subtitles.

Interview with Gérard Depardieu - Exploring his thoughts on both the film and his approach to acting. This interview is broken into sections, some of them very short, with the whole thing lasting around 10 minutes. Depardieu gets stuck a couple of times on phraseology and asks for help from someone off-screen. This `fault` makes him appear more endearing as he clearly doesn`t mind this imperfection being seen, which really isn`t that important but could you imagine any other big stars risk being seen like this?

Interview with Jean Claude Carriere - the writer of the screenplay talks about Depardieu, the structure of the film against the different theatrical versions and the different characters.

Conclusion

I`ve never seen the play or read any books based on the play, but I know the basic story of Cyrano de Bergerac (as I suspect do a lot of people in the same position as me). The nearest I got was the Steve Martin effort from 1987, most of that played for laughs in the usual Hollywood rom-com style. That film pales into insignificance next to the tour de force that is Cyrano de Bergerac. Jean-Pierre Rappeneau has produced a classic here, possibly the definitive cinematic version of this story.

Depardieu is absolutely brilliant in his role here, it feels that he was born to play this role. The makeup on the nose is quite astounding, if I didn`t know better then I would have assumed the big man had a big nose. That`s by the by though, as his acting is phenomenal. Based on a play, the dialogue was always going to be heavy but I certainly didn`t expect it to be quite as wordy as this. There is barely a pause between lines anywhere and Depardieu obviously gets the lion`s share of it. He just seems to sink into the character and let rip, never feeling the pace and always puts the right level of emotion into his work.

This is a tragic tale of unrequited love, a story with no happy ending. Cyrano loses the love of his life for all but the final few moments as Roxanne finally realises whose words she has fallen for. Christian dies in battle after realising that Roxanne doesn`t love him but the words spoken and written to her, his death leaves his promise to reveal all to Roxanne for Cyrano unfulfilled. Roxanne herself is a rather unsympathetic character in the end, rather shallow and unable to see the truth that is right in front of her eyes. She is convinced that Christian is a poet extraordinaire, despite knowing already of the reputation of her cousin Cyrano. Once Christian has her then all she lives for is more of the same words, it may be intellectual stimuli that she seeks, but it`s shallow all the same. I really felt no pity for her in the end. I don`t know if that`s how you are supposed to feel about this character, but hey…

This film can be quite heavy going, but the perseverance is worth it for Depardieu`s performance alone. Excellent film, humorous in places but ultimately a tragedy.