I have trouble articulating what Cyrano de Bergerac really means to me--it's a subject I've not thought on in years.
I imprinted on it when I was younger, especially after seeing the 1950 film with José Ferrer. (He's magnificent; I think the production around him is okay. No one else is ever really more than there to serve the story, although you don't notice while Cyrano's onscreen.) The necessary suspensions of disbelief only started to annoy me as I got older. I have a similar problem with plots where the tension must be produced by the protagonists not talking to one another—I give The Scarlet Pimpernel a pass because of the espionage angle (if his wife really is linked to the revolutionaries, then he can't confide in her without endangering his entire network) and the obfuscating stupidity (and she's not going to go to him for help about being blackmailed, if her husband really is a brainless clothes horse), but it's about the only example and I'm probably biased from early exposure to Leslie Howard.
A new French film of the story had come out not long before, and I want to say it was Gérard Depardieu who played the title character but I could only be saying that because he was such a feature of French cinéma in my adolescence, or at least of French cinéma as I experienced it.
No, he's in an adaptation from 1990. He was Oscar-nominated for it.
I should watch Tous les Matins du Monde (1991) again
I haven't seen that, although I know it's one of Alison's favorite films; we keep talking about watching it for Movie Night.
I wish you comfort and rest, or at least films that please you.
no subject
I imprinted on it when I was younger, especially after seeing the 1950 film with José Ferrer. (He's magnificent; I think the production around him is okay. No one else is ever really more than there to serve the story, although you don't notice while Cyrano's onscreen.) The necessary suspensions of disbelief only started to annoy me as I got older. I have a similar problem with plots where the tension must be produced by the protagonists not talking to one another—I give The Scarlet Pimpernel a pass because of the espionage angle (if his wife really is linked to the revolutionaries, then he can't confide in her without endangering his entire network) and the obfuscating stupidity (and she's not going to go to him for help about being blackmailed, if her husband really is a brainless clothes horse), but it's about the only example and I'm probably biased from early exposure to Leslie Howard.
A new French film of the story had come out not long before, and I want to say it was Gérard Depardieu who played the title character but I could only be saying that because he was such a feature of French cinéma in my adolescence, or at least of French cinéma as I experienced it.
No, he's in an adaptation from 1990. He was Oscar-nominated for it.
I should watch Tous les Matins du Monde (1991) again
I haven't seen that, although I know it's one of Alison's favorite films; we keep talking about watching it for Movie Night.
I wish you comfort and rest, or at least films that please you.
Thank you. You, too.