I just happened to see the trailer for this new movie. I must lead by noting that Cyrano de Bergerac is probably my favorite play ever. It is a drama, a comedy, a romance and a tragedy. The 1950 movie with Jose Ferrer is a very creditable rendition, using the Hooker translation which I prefer. The wordplay is as brilliant as the swordplay, and the last scene always breaks my heart. There are other filmed versions that might be worthwhile, although none of the ones I’ve seen.
So this new version – well, they’ve made a few changes. Instead of having a grotesquely large nose, the title character is a little person (David Dinklage). So that immediately throws out some of Cyrano’s best speeches, where he throws his nose back into the teeth of his detractors (so to speak). But that’s okay, because apparently they aren’t using any of the original dialog from the play. Because they can do better, I’m sure.
Oh, and the last straw for me is that they have turned it into a musical, and if the excerpts from the preview are anything to go by, it is in the blandest pop-Broadway style. Bleah, and no thanks.
It may be. I think that hearing poetry in your native language is so different from reading (non-poetic) sub-titles. That’s why I like the Hooker translation, it is English poetry in its own right, a few minor changes from the French original I guess, for the sake of the English scansion and flow.
And here is my rant about that. In the 1970’s, I think, San Francisco’s ACT did a production of Cyrano, which was also telecast at some point. They used a different translation, but it seemed fine as far as I can remember, until they got to the very last word. At the end, Cyrano is proclaiming everything that he has lost as he is about to die, and it goes something like “I have lost everything, except my white plume.” His white plume is the symbol, thoroughly established throughout the play, of his integrity and honor as a human being. But this production decided to keep the original French word, and so the line reads “I have lost everything, except my panache.” Now “panache” does mean literally plume in French, but it is a word that has made it’s way into English to mean flamboyance or extravagant style. That is a completely different meaning from what was intended in the original, and completely ruined that rendition of the play for me.
Well, I saw the title of this thread, and I got excited. I love both the Ferrer and Depardieu versions, and the story is ready for a new movie. But not this. Ugh.
Yeah. I actually don’t hate the idea of somebody making a watered-down Disneyfied musical version of Cyrano in English to let the teens and Dizgeeks experience a form of this magnificent story? And the trailer looks as though at least some thought and effort went into constructing that version.
But is that enough reason for me to watch it instead of the real thing with the original Rostand dialogue? Probably not.
I briefly had the thought that it might direct one or two of them to the source material, if they got into the story. I mean, the part of the story about Cyrano subbing for Christian under the balcony is close to a cultural trope, or at least it used to be, but so many other parts of the story are at least as important as that. And the last scene – “I never loved but one man in my life – and I have lost him twice!” I hope they include that sentiment, if not the exact line.
Yes, from the trailer it doesn’t seem that Dinklage has the zest or energy for the role, and the production has a very blah, Beauty and the Beast vibe.
I love the Jose Ferrer and the Depardieu film versions, and I also really enjoyed a short-lived Broadway musical version, in 1994. It was great fun, as well as romantic and touching, and was nominated for 4 Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Book and Best Original Score. It ran only 137 performances, though. The rumor was that the Broadway establishment was resentful of a production that premiered in Amsterdam and whose producer, director, writers and leading actor were all from the Netherlands.
I almost forgot, I rather enjoyed the modern re-telling in the Steve Martin movie Roxanne. The only sour note for me was when he called someone a “flat-nosed, flat-faced flat-head.”
Anthony Burgess’s translation used in the English subtitles to the Depardieu version is brilliant and entirely in verse using rhymes and sprung rhythm.
For 30+ years my wife and I have made occasional fun of the Depardieu version because it also ends on the word panache, which until this moment I didn’t understand. Well. The more you learn.
Thank you for that information. The poetry of it doesn’t come across easily when reading it, one line at a time as subtitles, nor as it would if someone were speaking those lines. But clearly it bears further study.