Cyrano
The classic French play of unrequited love gives Peter Dinklage something to sing about.
Getting short shrift: Haley Bennett and Peter Dinklage
Cyrano de Bergerac, a charismatic, dashing guardsman, is a magnificent poet, an illustrious wit and can comfortably defeat ten swordsmen at a time. But he carries a great sorrow in his heart: the love he feels for his childhood friend, Roxanne, is unrequited. As he says, “She is the Alps. I am simply not worthy of her.”
Cyrano, adapted from Erica Schmidt's off-Broadway musical, is, of course, a reworking of the 1897 play by Edmond Rostand. And, boy, has the story seen many a transition, from Augusto Genina's 1922 silent film to the Oscar-nominated 1990 version with Gérard Depardieu, via such modern-dress variants as Roxanne, with Steve Martin, and the highly recommended 2020 Netflix release The Half of It. Indeed, today the story would seem to have more of a resonance that at any time in its telling. For Cyrano is a story of linguistic courtship, with the eponymous wordsmith penning the love letters of a handsome soldier who has become smitten with Roxanne’s exterior charms. As Cyrano tells him, “I will make you eloquent, while you make me handsome.” And so the unwitting Roxanne falls for an imaginary ideal, lapping up the words of a stranger only spotted at a distance. Today, many such souls are enraptured by the words of an unknown source, in an on-line chat room, perhaps, with suggestive emojis replacing the emotional cues of the songs used here.
Set in an indeterminate corner of Europe (filmed in Sicily) at an unspecified time, this Cyrano exists in a culturally fluid world. It is perhaps post-ironic that the blue-eyed, fair maiden Roxanne (Haley Bennett) should be so enraptured by an African-American (Kelvin Harrison Jr) in a bygone age. And she would seem to have little romantic interest in her far more articulate (white) admirer because he is not so tall. In Rostand’s original, Cyrano was disadvantaged by an exceptionally large nose, while his dimensions here are rearranged to make a perfect vehicle for the endlessly gifted Peter Dinklage, who created his role on stage (in his wife Erica Schmidt’s adaptation). Dinklage is to the short actor what Sidney Poitier was to the black actor and Marlee Matlin to the deaf actor – a large talent contained within an unconventional form for his or her time.
It is on his shoulders that the film rests, and he makes it his own with a sly swagger and dramatic charge. As Roxanne, Haley Bennett certainly fulfils the emotional and musical demands of her character, if not the mesmeric wattage of one who attracts so many (including Ben Mendelsohn's pompous and deceitful De Guiche). The director, Joe Wright, does not always provide her with the most flattering angles, which is unfortunate as he is her romantic partner in real life. He reserves his most sumptuous imagery for the set pieces, which he does very well, drawing on the aesthetic chiaroscuro hues of Caravaggio and Rembrandt. But let’s not forget that Cyrano is a musical and as such it hardly sweeps us off our feet. There’s many a great stage musical yet to make it to the big screen, so it seems strange that this has been given the green light. It didn’t even make it to Broadway. And the lyrics of ‘Wherever I Fell’, for instance, are naff in the extreme. Handing his last letter to a courier, a soldier sings: “I have a girl, I think I love her/Should have told her, instead I told her mother/Say that right before I fell/I said her name out loud: Isabel.” Sondheim would not have been impressed.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Ben Mendelsohn, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Dolan, Joshua James, Ray Strachan, Mark Benton, Richard McCabe, Peter Wight, Tim McMullan, Ruth Sheen, Anjana Vasan.
Dir Joe Wright, Pro Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Guy Heeley, Screenplay Erica Schmidt, Ph, Pro Des Sarah Greenwood, Ed Valerio Bonelli, Music Aaron Dessner and Bryce Dessner, Costumes Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran, Sound Paul Carter, Dialect coach Emma Woodvine.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Bron Creative/Working Title Films-Universal Pictures.
123 mins. UK/USA/Canada. 2021. US Rel: 17 December 2021. UK Rel: 25 February 2022. Cert. 12A.
