Anniversary of the Cyrano de Bergerac

On March 28, 1990, а movie by Jean-Paul Rappeneau "Cyrano de Bergerac" was released on cinema screens in France.

I have many different childhood memories associated with this work. In this case, I'm talking about the play of the same name by Edmond Rostand, on which this film is staged. The fact is that when I was at school and participated in a drama club, our leader, an actor of the city youth theater, invited us to participate in the crowd in the play "Cyrano de Bergerac", in which he played the role of Carbon de Castle-Jaloux. In the end, it turned out that of all the participants in the drama club, I alone "stayed on stage" - playing a Parisian street kid.

For several months, almost every day I was connected with this production. First - rehearsals, then - performances. As a result, I learned this play of Rostand almost by heart. Besides, I learned a lot about the theatrical life and the work of actors, so to speak, from the inside.

As I said, there are many childhood memories associated with this masterpiece of Rostand. But I want to share one.

As a rule, I came to the theater an hour and a half before the start of the performance. Although there was no special need for it: I needed no makeup, the suit was the simplest, and there was no particular need to get used to the “image”, of course. I was just interested in everything: how actors make up, prepare, how work scenes mount the scenery, etc. etc. While many actors used to come literally just 20-30 minutes before the start of the performance.

And once, when I arrived, as usual, an hour and a half before the start, I saw that all the actors were in place and, it is used to say, "on alert." I asked what happened. The answer was: "Furtseva will be at the play." To be honest, at that moment this answer did not clarify anything. Who is Furtseva, I, the then seventh grader, was completely unaware. But the main thing is that because of this Furtseva's visit, the performance was supposed to begin not as usual, at 19:00, but an hour earlier.

And so, at 18:00, after all three set calls, the curtain opened, and we saw from the stage that 5 people were sitting in the hall. So the actors played the first act in an empty hall.

Then eyewitnesses told that Furtseva, who turned up for some business in our city, spontaneously decided to attend the Youth Theater. But she demanded that the performance begin an hour earlier, because she had her own schedule. Well, the actors were somehow notified. And how will you inform the audience? And in the end, the audience who paid for the ticket and arrived on time could watch the performance only starting from the second act. Such people managed national culture in the early 70's. This is how the Soviet ministers of culture treated people. Real Communists!

But, however, our post is not about the play, but about the film.

Nobody can name the exact number of theatrical productions of the play by Edmond Rostand, written and published at the very end of the 19th century. I dare to assert this on the grounds that, for example, Wikipedia, listing the productions of the play, does not mention the production in our Youth Theater. But there probably were a lot of such examples. Probably only Shakespeare’s plays can compete with this play by Rostand in popularity in the theater world. As for the adaptations, then, according to my calculations, about two dozen will also be typed. But the best of them, judging by the audience’s ratings, reviews of film critics and other indicators, is a film adaptation by Jean-Paul Rappeneau with Gerard Depardieu in the title role.

Rappeneau's picture obtained 31 film awards. Naturally that "Cyrano de Bergerac" in France received 10 Cesar awards. And Jean-Paul Rappeneau was awarded with the César des Césars. But not only at home the film was recognized by filmmakers. In Italy, it was awarded the David di Donatello Prize, and in the United States - the Golden Globe. In both cases - as the best foreign film.

In addition, "Cyrano de Bergerac" received several prestigious nominations. In 1990, the film was nominated for the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival, but the jury of the film festival, chaired by Bernardo Bertolucci, preferred David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" movie. In the same 1990, the "Cyrano de Bergerac" was nominated for the European Academy Award, but the Academy, awarded this prize to the film "Porte aperte (Open Doors)" by Gianni Amelio. Honestly, I have not seen this film, but judging by the ratings of moviegoers, nothing special. A similar story took place with the nomination of the film "Cyrano de Bergerac" for the British BAFTA Prize: here, too, the British film academies preferred the film by Michael Verhoeven's "Das schreckliche Mädchen (The Nasty Girl)". And again I have to admit that I did not see this film. But it's not very high marks from moviegoers make it possible to doubt in this case a sufficient degree of objectivity and qualification of British film academics.

In 1991, "Cyrano de Bergerac" was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. But in this case, film academics preferred the Swiss film "Reise der Hoffnung (Journey of Hope)" by Xavier Koller. Has anyone seen this movie? Share your impressions. And then I got the impression that in this decision of the American Film Academy there was more politics, or rather, political correctness than artistic taste. The reason for this is the lack of reviews on Kinopoisk and a very modest assessment of critics, Roger Ebert for instance.

Though, Russian film critic Yevgeny Nefyodov explains this “inexplicable” decision by American film academics as

“a vile campaign unleashed against Gerard Depardieu in the US press that impeded the commercial success of the film,”

in connection with which French Culture Minister Jack Lang was even forced to send an official note of protest.

But Roger Ebert, contrary to the opinion of American film academics, rated the film "Cyrano de Bergerac" much higher than the Oscar-winning "Journey of Hope". In his 1990 review, he wrote:

""Cyrano de Bergerac" is a splendid movie not just because it tells its romantic story, and makes it visually delightful, ... but for a better reason: The movie acts as if it believes this story."

True, Ebert did not give the film a maximum of 4 stars, limiting himself to three and a half stars. But this is understandable, given his own recognition:

"I have made it one of my rules in life never to have anything to do with anyone who does not instinctively love Cyrano, and I am most at home with those who identify with him."

It makes clear that the “Cyrano de Bergerac” of Rostand is an ideal for Ebert. And the ideal is unattainable.

As for audience ratings, 58% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. Taking into account all the above indicators of the film’s success, its rating according to the version of FilmGourmand was 9.634, which allowed the film to be ranked 70th in the Golden Thousand.