I hadn’t seen Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) in decades, but upon rewatch, yep, it’s still a historical costume classic, at least in terms of costume design and execution. Despite loathing Gérard Depardieu on several levels, I decided it was time we took a deep dive into this impressive 17th-century-set production. The film is an adaptation of an 1897 play, which fictionalizes the real-life Cyrano, a 17th century French soldier who indeed wrote novels and plays and yes, fought duels.
Cyrano is played by Depardieu, who I will admit, is at his prime as an actor in this production. His love interest, Roxanne, is played by Anne Brochet (Tous les matins du monde) and manages to be fresh and romantic. In between them is Christian (Vincent Perez), the handsome but inarticulate (and possibly kind of dumb) soldier who has caught Roxanne’s eye. You all know how the story pans out, and I’ll say, the film lost my interest by mid-way through. But the costumes. Are really impressively good…
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I was training in Leeds and went to an old, slightly run down independent cinema to watch this when it came out. I sat in a nearly empty cinema, surrounded by faded gilt and tattered red velvet and wept (not cried……wept) at the end, where Roxanne realises the letter is from him and not Christian…..and that she has loved Cyrano all along. I had a major crush on Depardieu in the 90’s, Channel 4 in the U.K. had a Depardieu season and I watched each one avidly. Now………..well he’s a knobhead and not to be entertained, but this version is beautiful and heartbreaking