…………………………………………………

Cyrano de Bergerac Movie Review

Cyrano de Bergerac is a 1950 adventure comedy film directed by Michael Gordon and starring Jose Ferrer in the titular role. It’s a solid, but flawed and dated film.

………………………………………………….

“Alone, yes, but why go about making enemies?“

…………………………………………………..

The charismatic swordsman-poet and provocateur in 1640s Paris helps a young guardsman woo the woman he loves, complicated by the politics of the nobility and the war with Spain. Based on the famous eponymous stage play, this is my first time seeing this story in any shape or form, and I have to say that I was disappointed, or at least in this particular iteration of it.

This is one of those overly stagey films from this era that did not age well at all. Unlike something like Olivier’s ‘Hamlet’, this movie lacks cinematic qualities and is instead overly theatrical and basic-looking due to its budgetary restraints. The production design is quite mediocre, the battle scenes are solid but not rousing, and the cinematography, costumes and score are all just serviceable. The audio-visuals really needed to pop here to transcend this story beyond its stage trappings.

Cyrano de Bergerac has a pretty good central performance from Jose Ferrer. He is believable and charismatic in the role. He’s also vulnerable when he needed to be. With that being said, I wouldn’t really call his performance Oscar-worthy. It was an obvious choice for the Academy, but not the greatest one. This made him the first Hispanic winner in the category, but he didn’t earn it as he was overly theatrical, again pinpointing the problem of this adaptation not being cinematic at all.

…………………………………………………..

Others fared much worse, though, as Ferrer was at least quite memorable and suave in his role. Mala Powers was just okay as the love interest, but the character was forgettable. William Prince played an important character, but the dynamic between these two really needed to have been stronger to carry the plot better. The film is quite romantic, funny at times and obviously benefiting from strong dialogue, but it needed better pacing as it wasn’t at all engaging to me.