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Summary: And found myself the hero
Review: I don't know how it's possible for a writer to expose my inner-workings so dynamically. This was written before I was born. However, the poetry and pomp, the lust and life, the fantasy and phantom of love, pure and chaste from afar defines me from inwards to extremity. I must now replace this masterpiece of a clairvoyant ancestor of Ralph Edwards.
The soul of any artist knows that life is not what we see, but how we perceive what we see. This video allows those with vision to glimpse the reality reserved for those who can recount their perceptions in whatever form.
See this video, if you never see another. The effect it will have on your life depends on your level of surrender to the realities in life.
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Summary: Short Romantic Play Written in the Realist Times
Review: I found the book to have good poems within the play. It had its dull points, but it is also had some good action. I found it boring, but what do I know!
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Summary: I have enjoyed this recording for years
Review: I have had this recording for many years. My original copy is on vinyl. Not only is it extremely well acted, but one almost feels like they are in the locations of the play, the theater, the bakery, the battlefront.
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Summary: The standard.........
Review: I never was one for the old flicks. After seeing this movie my faith was restored. By far the best film i have seen all time. A truely complete film.
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Summary: An excellent movie
Review: I read the play before watching the movie, and I thought the movie was very good. I would recommend it to anyone. However, if you have the time, read the book by Edmund Rostand... It is even more powerful than the movie. If you enjoyed this movie, try 12 Angry Men with Mr. Fonda. That is also a good movie.
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Summary: An exquisite tragi-comedy
Review: If there's one thing that has me miffed, it's those ridiculous academic critiques of this play. Yes, it's unrealistic, yes, it's energetic to the point of insanity, yes, the character of Cyrano is particularly vulnerable to the ridiculous Freudian analyses that Lit. professors are obsessed with. But the essence of this work, what makes it breathe, are the very qualities so mocked by elitists: its color, its flamboyance, and above all its wonderfully unashamed idealism. First of all, this is entertaining reading at its best: a combination of witty repartee and laugh-out-loud humor, balanced with emotional depth that is subtle yet wrenching in its intensity. With just a few lines the scenes come alive, with characters whose brash gallantry is reminiscent of Dumas' Musketeers. All this virtuoso treatment finds a focal point in the character of Cyrano, who is at once comic and tragic: his biting wit provides a facade for a soul in torment, for his sensitivity to beauty makes his own ugliness that much more painful. Yet there is so much fire and pride in Cyrano that never once does he beg for our pity, and endures the pain of thwarted love with the same charisma and bravery with which he does battle. The contradiction between Cyrano as he is inside--a veritable furnace of eloquent passion--and his markedly ugly exterior, is his tragedy. Through the vehicle of this contradiction, Edmond Rostand explores the nature of love, particularly regarding how much of it is dependant upon exteriors. Yet this theme does not smother the tale, which is such a heady mixture of beauty, hilarity and subtle insight that it fairly intoxicates. My only complaint, upon finishing it, was that it had to end.
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Summary: Cyrano: A Man of Words and Action
Review: In CYRANO DE BERGERAC, director Michael Gordon took the play by Edmond Rostand and kept the original theme that it was only the man who had a mastery of both words and action who could achieve greatness. Jose Ferrer plays Cyrano as a man who wears a mask of courage and speech to hide an inner self who suffers from a lifetime of hurt because of his outsized nose. He has an infinity of patience to bear his own pain, but none at all for the pain of the woman whom he loves from afar. Mala Powers plays Roxanne, Cyrano's love interest, as a beautiful, yet one-dimensional heroine who is obtuse enough not to see the depths of Cyrano's love for her but thinks she can see herself love the handsome but verbally challenged Christian. This movie is a set piece of scenes, each of which places Cyrano at center stage, either seeking glory with wit or word or unselfishly trying to connect the clueless Roxanne with an equally clueless Christian, who cannot perceive why Cyrano would help him win Roxanne.
Much of the charm of the movie rests squarely on the shoulders of Jose Ferrer, who starts the movie with a wonderful sequence of dueling set to verse. As Cyrano hits the final refrain to the poem, he stabs his overmatched opponent, with the audience of the theater in the film and the audience watching the video loudly applauding. It is this twin level of applauding from both audiences that Cyrano clearly needs as much as he needs Roxanne. He hides his pain for nearly the entire film. It is only at the end that he removes the mask so that Roxanne can see the mixture of courage and fear that has driven Cyrano from childhood. Cyrano, at the end, is old, malnourished, and suffering from a head wound, all of which he hides from a still dense Roxanne, who still cherishes the memory of Christian, who died fifteen years earlier in heroic battle. All Roxanne can see is a Cyrano who has been her faithful companion for all those years, never asking for anything in return. All Cyrano can see is a woman whose own delusions are more important for him to maintain than it is for her. Yet as Cyrano reads her the gossip of the court, Roxanne cannot but help notice his atypical hesitation of movement and slurring of speech. Too late, she guesses the truth, which he denies even until the last. Cyrano dies on his feet, dueling with a lifetime of foes who dance before his faltering gaze. Roxanne knows with his death who Cyrano really was.
CYRANO DE BERGERAC is a mixture of exciting adventure mixed with some basic questions as to why some people are attracted to this person, but not another. The movie does not directly answer these questions, but it does imply that beneath the exteriors of handsome features often beats a heart not unlike that of one who must confront society with sword and verse only because of a nose.
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Summary: cyrano de bergerac
Review: it is a really good story. i like it a lot.
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Summary: "IT WAS A EXCELLENT MOVIE WITH GREAT WIT AND CHARM"
Review: JOSE FERRER IS WITHOUT A DOUBT ONE OF THIS CENTURY'S PREMIER ACTOR. HIS ROLE IN THE MOVIE WAS FIVE STAR PERFORMANCE.
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Summary: Thrust Home!!
Review: Jose Ferrer's performance as Cyrano is mind boggling. He was PERFECT! His delivery of the poetic lines were as if they were truly coming from his own heart. His comedic timing held my attention during the entire sword fight in which he told his opponent, "and as I end my refrain...thrust home." I know Cyrano is a classic and has been done by others but this production is the one to get and enjoy over and over again.
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