Cyrano De Bergerac

The story of Cyrano de Bergerac, a real-life soldier, expert swordsman, poet, playwright, philosopher, and romantic, is one of tragedy and unrequited love; first immortalised in Edmond Rostand's 19th-century play. In case you've missed the many film adaptations of Cyrano including Jose Ferrer's 1950 Oscar-winning performance or Steve Martin's comedic turn Roxanne, the story tells of this ill-fated swordsman and poet behind whose ridiculously long nose beats a noble and romantic heart.

With Cyrano’s brash and arrogant exterior, the sharpness of both his sword and his wit are feared throughout Paris. But his bravado belies his acute lack of self-esteem. You see, Cyrano's in love with his beautiful cousin Roxanne (the stunning Anne Brochet) but his own self-loathing and fear of rejection keeps him from approaching her. When Roxanne summons Cyrano to a secret meeting, his heart leaps at the possibility that she may indeed be in love with him. But when Roxanne comes to him begging his services as a romantic go-between between her and a young, handsome cadet Christian (Vincent Perez), he is shattered and yet cannot possibly refuse.

Upon meeting Christian, a beautiful and inarticulate buffoon, he agrees to help him woo his cousin - ghost-writing love letters on Christian’s behalf. Cyrano figures that with his eloquence and Christian’s beauty, the two of them represent the man Cyrano could never have been. And thus Cyrano is reduced to ushering the hapless fellow through a love affair that ought to be his, making the ultimate sacrifice for the happiness of his beloved.

Released in 1990, Jean Paul Rappenea’s adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac is widely considered the definitive version of this romantic tragedy, and was nominated for four Oscars, including Gerard Depardieu as best actor - quite a feat for a foreign-language film in limited distribution. It is easy to see why. Revisiting Rostand's original theatrical version, Rappenea’s lyrical script retains much of Rostand's original iambic verse. With beautiful sets and costumes, 17th century Paris is faithfully recreated right down to the last detail.

Of course Depardieu, one of France’s greatest actors, provides a powerful performance in a role that he was born to play. This is a bitter and biting adaptation, delivering fully on the tragedy of Cyrano’s situation, and Depardieu beautifully swings between bombastic rage to despondent melancholy. Cyrano de Bergerac is a must see if only for his fine performance.

Presenting us with a non-anamorphic transfer of Cyrano de Bergerac that is letterboxed at 1.85:1, newcomer Umbrella Entertainment has provided a region 4 transfer that is ultimately disappointing.

There are two main problems with the transfer, both of which originate from the print used. Firstly, the image exhibits a great deal of film grain. This grain, varying from low to just plain ridiculous, leads to many problems including low-level noise, and a general loss of detail throughout the film; the detail loss being particularly bad when the camera pans. Although black level is very good, the low-level noise renders shadow detail almost non-existent. This is unfortunate because the majority of the film’s scenes are dark, filmed either in dim 17th century interiors or at night.

The second, yet much less annoying problem with the image is the level of film artefacts that it displays, with an almost constant stream of small specs. On average these specs are not distracting, but at times the screen literally buzzes with activity. The always-annoying end-of-reel markers are also visible. This could not possibly be the PAL transfer being served up to French audiences, for whom Cyrano was and still is immensely popular.

Of course problems with the image are always a disappointment, but this is even more acute for foreign or independent films that are not linked to big studios or box office success (ie. stand no chance of re-release). Given that this transfer probably represents the one and only digital version for this excellent movie in our region, and that priced-to-own DVD is a media targeted largely at fans, it is a shame that independent distributors do not feel their responsibility in this regard more acutely – especially for a film with such beautiful cinematography and production design.

All in all, it would be gross over-exaggeration to say this region 4 transfer of Cyrano is unwatchable, but ultimately, fans of this cinematic masterpiece are going to be disappointed. How many other films with four Oscar nominations are going to suffer similar treatment?

Only a single soundtrack is provided, French Dolby Digital 2.0, but where the video transfer disappoints, the audio, despite the lack of a 5.1 encoding, is surprisingly good. The soundstage is full, with the surrounds used to provide a great deal of ambient sound such as Parisian crowds, wind and driving rain. They also carry a balanced portion of Jean-Claude Petit’s moving score. The movie also contains a surprising level of low frequency sound, with the subwoofer subtly supporting the score and effects such as horse hooves, and getting a great workout during the battle scenes. The result of all this is a totally immersive sound experience, lacking only in directional effects.

The film is presented in French with English subtitles burned into the print. Although this lack of optional subtitles is somewhat disappointing, we do retain the original English translation that was produced by acclaimed novelist Anthony Burgess. In fact, the producers of Cyrano de Bergerac decided that for each foreign language in which the film would be subtitled, they would commission (where possible) the best-known translator of the play into that language. Retaining as much as possible the lyrical script and iambic verse of the script, Burgess’ translation is an essential addition to the film, and the DVD release would have been much the poorer without it.

The disc itself is presented quite nicely indeed with (non-anamorphic) menus that are animated with scenes from the film. In terms of extras, Umbrella have managed to compile a reasonable set, the showpiece being a Movie Show interview with Gerard Depardieu.

Gerard Depardieu Interview: Extracts from an interview with SBS Movie Show’s Margaret Pomerantz in which Gerard discusses the movie’s inception, the character of Cyrano and his development, working with director Jean Paul Rappenea, and the choice of Anne Brochet as Roxanne. Although we aren’t supplied with Margaret’s questions, Depardieu is very eloquent and shows his passion for the material and for his craft. The footage is presented in a small window to the left of the screen with a chapter menu to the right. Very interesting stuff for fans of the man and of the movie.

Profiles: Detailed career profiles and filmographies for Cyrano’s main stars including Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez and Jacques Weber.

The Legend of Cyrano: Five pages of text introducing historical information on the real Cyrano (who lived between 1619 and 1655), his life and his art, as well as the original play by Edmond Rostand.

Rober Ebert Review: The full review of Cyrano de Bergerac from 1990 as penned by widely respected movie critic and reviewer for The Chicago Sun Times, Roger Ebert.

Awards and Nominations: A complete list of awards and nominations that the film garnered in 1990 and 1991.

CD Soundtrack: Advertising for the soundtrack album

Umbrella Propaganda: Trailer for upcoming Umbrella release Malcom, and a list of other upcoming titles.

Cyrano de Bergerac is a movie with something for everyone; packing comedy, tragedy, drama, action, romance and adventure into just over two hours. Depardieu, in signature style and with his overwhelming screen presence, delivers all these effortlessly. Cyrano is without question one of my favourite Depardieu films, and on that basis alone I would recommend it to everyone. However, with the poor video transfer on offer, I would suggest renting before you buy. For the die-hard fan wanting to collect this title, there’s no choice offered as yet by other regions, so it’s a case of buy now or wait and hope.