Cyrano De Bergerac (1990)

The 17th century French historical romance is characterized by young women in billowing dresses with low cut bodices running hither and thither, long-haired men with big hats and capes mopping the cobbles with assorted Royalist varlets while wenches and cut-purses mill about muddy streets and congregate in seedy taverns. Jean-Paul Rappeneau (with the assistance of co-scenarist, Jean-Claude Carrière) obliges with tongue-in-cheek, old-fashioned swashbuckling style that tends to overwhelm the pathos of this well-known story of unrequited love.

Edmond Rostand's famous 1897 play was based on a real person who lived in France from 1619 to 1655 and here Gérard Depardieu plays him with the kind of magnificent exaggeration that is the actor's signature style (his death scene should be included in the actor's greatest moments compile) rather than anything that is factually accurate. Anne Brochet's Roxane is an ethereal creature given to petit-point and equally romantic fancies of her own and one feels that she is more appealing to modern French taste (Emmanuelle Béart would have done just as well) than Depardieu's lusty rouseabout.

Personally I get more enjoyment from the Steve Martin modern reworking of the story, Roxanne (1987) but for lovers of costume romps this should deliver above-average satisfaction.

FYI: The 1950 film version Cyrano De Bergerac features an Oscar winning José Ferrer as the eponymous hero

 

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