3 Cyranos

The character of Cyrano is so familiar, in the common coin of cultural currency, that it came as a surprise to find that I didn’t really know the play at all, aside from the basic premise. And an even greater surprise to find out how deep and resonant it is. I couldn’t have told you that Rostand’s play premiered in 1897, that it was written in Alexandrine verse, or that it was considered the last great popular historical romance. So the 1990 film version of Cyrano de Bergerac directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau and starring Gerard Depardieu came as a revelation to me, most in how close to home the theme felt -- the fond hope that beauty of language may be more attractive than beauty of person, closer to the soul. Lavishly produced and festooned with awards, this French production is meticulous in its recreation of a 17th century milieu. The music of the language comes through even when one knows little French, and the subtitles written by Anthony Burgess effectively transmit the poetic meaning. This film made Depardieu an international star (after he had made 80 of his 160 films to date), and he is both an imposing and a wistful presence, swashbuckling and sensitive, up to rousing action and to plaintive retreat as well. And it’s easy to fall for Roxanne in the person of Anne Brochet. All round, an impeccable adaptation. *8+*

Jose Ferrer won a Best Actor Oscar for the 1950 Hollywood version of Cyrano de Bergerac and his way with the poetry in translation makes this highly watchable as well, sticking close to the play itself, or at least to the French movie. The other credits are unfamiliar, but while Michael Gordon’s direction is workaday, stage-set stuff, Mala Powers was good enough as Roxanne to make one wonder why she didn’t have much of a career thereafter. All round, an honorable adaptation. *7+*

So then I went back and watched Steve Martin as an updated Cyrano in Roxanne (1987), which was probably my only direct acquaintance with the character heretofore. It’s certainly charming enough as a contemporary romantic comedy, with Fred Schepisi directing well in a Rocky Mountain town setting and Darryl Hannah as charming as Roxanne (Kowalski, in this case) as she was as a mermaid in Splash, but just as imaginary. Martin as scriptwriter jettisons most of the plot and all of the poetry, retaining a few bravura scenes and some of that wistful faith in the power of words. His fire chief C.D. Bales is as adept as the traditional Cyrano in some ways, though in others the film is somewhat slapsticky. Still, a competent and amusing effort, which suffers only by close comparison to the original. *7-*