Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Cyrano de Bergerac Blu-ray Movie Review

He has a nose for danger.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 28, 2012

Few may realize it, but there was an actual, honest to goodness Cyrano de Bergerac. Yes, he apparently had a rather large proboscis (that’s nose for you less literary types). And, yes, he was apparently both a fantastic writer as well as rather handy with a sword. But there the similarities between Life and Art tend to part ways, and the Cyrano that most people think they know, the one from Edmond Rostand’s play, bears only a passing resemblance to the real life raconteur on whom he is based. Cyrano de Bergerac (the play, not the person) has had a rather long shelf life, having been adapted successfully into English by both Brian Hooker (whose work informs this film version) and, more recently, Anthony Burgess. Rather incredibly, though, the play, despite being the crowning achievement of Rostand’s life and one of the most popular entertainments of the twentieth century, had never been filmed in English before this 1950 version, a version which went on to win José Ferrer the Academy Award for Best Actor, despite some fairly heavy competition from William Holden in Sunset Boulevard and James Stewart in the new to Blu-ray Harvey. The film was produced by Stanley Kramer, who more often than not tended to favor “message” pictures, and if the message here is something as commonplace as unrequited love, it doesn’t dull the wit and ebullience of a story which has continued to hold sway over both filmmakers and artisans working in other media. (Anthony Burgess adapted his own adaptation of Rostand’s play into a rather charming musical in the 1970s which, like this film, flopped horribly but which won its star—Christopher Plummer—his own theatrical “Oscar,” the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical.) The role of Cyrano de Bergerac provides a field day for any actor lucky enough to undertake it, but Ferrer’s commanding voice and theatrical athleticism provided an uncommonly good fit for the part, and it is Ferrer’s performance that has allowed audiences to overlook some less than stellar contributions in the rest of the film, which was done on a paltry budget with at least a couple of actors who weren’t quite at the Ferrer levels of craft.

There’s an aura of melancholy that underlies much of Cyrano de Bergerac, and Ferrer brings a suitably doleful quality to the character, despite Cyrano’s evident bravado. This is a man who has obviously been the butt of harassment for his entire life due to his physical deformity, but also perhaps also for his quick wit and flowery language. When the angle of his star-crossed love with cousin (yes, cousin) Roxane (Mala Powers) is added in to the mix, it’s a wonder Cyrano isn’t curled up into a fetal position under some nearby table. Cyrano’s love isn’t especially well mannered, as the opening sequence of the film aptly details. An actor who had had the temerity to smile at Roxane finds his performance set upon by the swordsman, and all hell breaks loose. But Roxane is completely unaware of Cyrano’s devotion to her, and a major heartbreak for the title character ensues when Roxane reveals she’s fallen in love with a young soldier, Christian de Neuvillette (William Prince).

The weight of things never quite working out tends to drag the emotional content of Cyrano de Bergerac down to absolutely depressive depths, and the film is an undeniably sad experience, especially once Cyrano begins helping Christian woo Roxane, seeing his one true love fall for sentiments that are in fact those of Cyrano himself. Those who aren’t overly familiar with the original Rostand source material may be surprised by some of the twists and turns the piece takes, for there’s another pompous buffoon also out to woo Roxane, and his machinations play into the third act of the film, when both Christian and Cyrano are called upon to fight in a battle against Spain. There are now two sets of star-crossed lovers, with Roxane the fulcrum between them. Roxane and Christian are unable to consummate their relationship due to the battle and of course Cyrano is out there in the cold anyway, longing to finally reveal his true feelings for the woman.

Cyrano de Bergerac was shot on a virtual shoestring budget, and it often shows it. The film has a resolutely stagey quality to it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, since Cyrano is such a theatrical character at heart. Director Michael Gordon does what he can under the circumstances, and some of the sword fighting scenes are expertly staged, with nice tracking shots following the duelists as they thrust and parry. Gordon also uses some skewed camera angles at times to invest the film with a little visual flair. Gordon was an interesting director who was yet another person swept up in the anti-Communist fury of the early fifties and who found himself blacklisted for several years. A former member of the Group Theater (Group mainstay Morris Carnovsky has a featured role in the film), Gordon’s career went into a steep decline shortly after Cyrano de Bergerac came out, and it wasn’t until the rather unlikely influence of Ross Hunter in the late fifties that Gordon was able to make a comeback with such light romantic vehicles as Pillow Talk and Move Over, Darling. Trivia buffs may be interested to know that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Gordon’s grandson.

Ferrer was always a rather distinctive actor, one who easily traversed the worlds of both the legitimate stage (he in fact also won a Tony for playing Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway in the late forties) and film. Not really traditionally handsome enough to ever be a top flight romantic star, Ferrer instead was able to craft a career out of a number of high profile character roles, both leading and supporting. His “one two punch” of Cyrano de Bergerac and the John Huston Moulin Rouge (as Toulouse-Lautrec) established him as a leading force to be reckoned with, but he then tended to matriculate to always colorful but less substantial roles for the rest of his film career. Despite the drawbacks caused by its low budget, Cyrano de Bergerac remains as one of the leading testaments to the skill Ferrer brought to his projects. It’s notable that virtually every actor who steps into this iconic role ends up being compared to Ferrer, for good reason.

Cyrano de Bergerac Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cyrano de Bergerac is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. As some probably know, Cyrano de Bergerac lapsed into the public domain and has been released on a number of substandard PD media through the years. While I can't state with any certainty exactly what elements were used for this transfer, generally speaking this is far and away the best looking Cyrano I've personally seen, though there are still some occasional problems. The elements are in remarkably decent enough shape overall, though typical age related wear and tear do show up (the final couple of minutes of the film have the worst damage, with emulsion issues and some pretty bad bleed through). The more niggling problem for some videophiles is probably going to be contrast fluctuations. Much of the film, in fact the vast majority, looks very good, with deep blacks and crisp whites, but there are moments where contrast is overblown, giving a milky white, somewhat faded sheen to the film. There are also some curious inserts here and there that almost look like they were sourced from 16mm. But these are fairly transitory issues in what is overall a very nicely sharp and well detailed high definition presentation. As is typical with these Olive releases, there doesn't appear to have been any digital tweaking, and the film retains a natural layer of grain.

Cyrano de Bergerac Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cyrano de Bergerac's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix faithfully reproduces the original one track sound of this low budget film. Ferrer's sonorous voice rings out with very good fidelity and generally speaking all dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and Dimitri Tiomkin's heroically heraldic score sounds nicely boisterous. There are occasional very minor issues with this track, including a couple of little pops and crackles along the way, but overall the track sounds clean and decently full bodied. The battle scenes, both sword play and otherwise, present the opportunity for some nice sounding foley effects, and those are offered with good fidelity and decently wide dynamic range.

Cyrano de Bergerac Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements of any kind are offered on this Blu-ray.

Cyrano de Bergerac Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cyrano de Bergerac is filled with luscious language, expertly delivered by José Ferrer. The film is inordinately sad, a kind of literary "three hankie weeper" that should appeal to those who like their love affairs unrequited and ultimately tragic. Though the film is somewhat hampered by feeling so stage bound, Ferrer's magnificent performance opens that stage up into untold heights and depths of expression. This Blu-ray offers generally excellent video and audio and comes Recommended.