MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Cyrano’ a Most Handsome Film

The glorious new “Cyrano de Bergerac” (opening today at the Royal) brings together the right man--Gerard Depardieu--at the right time of his life and career with one of the juiciest roles in European drama, one he was born to play. And with precisely the right nose.

What could be a better harbinger of the pleasures to come than the perfection of this Cyrano’s nose? Depardieu’s already generous proboscis has not been built out all that much; it’s been expanded into the Jimmy Durante schnozolla range and boasts a Bob Hope ski slope. It’s just outsized enough to obsess a vain, brilliant man like Cyrano, but not so big as to be all-out Pinocchio freakish. This allows us to perceive that Cyrano sees himself as a beast far more than we do, which gives fresh meaning and poignancy to Edmond Rostand’s hero, who has enchanted audiences around the world for 93 years.

A poll once revealed that Cyrano is France’s favorite literary character, beating out even Jean Valjean and D’Artagnan. This makes perfect sense. Most of us, rightly or wrongly, are less than thrilled by our looks and have experienced unrequited love, which inevitably carries with it the desire to make it bearable by romanticizing it.

Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau, who adapted the play for the screen with Jean-Claude Carriere, one of the most distinguished of screenwriters, doesn’t bring on the object of Cyrano’s secret adoration, his cousin Roxane, played by witty, heart-stopping beauty Anne Brochet, until we’re well into the 138-minute film. Rappeneau is being neither digressive nor draggy; to the contrary, he wants to sweep us up and immerse us in his lusty, exuberant evocation of 17th-Century France, a world of elegance and earthiness, grandeur and squalor. Have no fear: This “Cyrano” is a film of dash and vigor, an exceptionally graceful adaptation of a play for the screen.

How appropriate that the film begins in a theater, for Cyrano is the most theatrical of men yet also a poet, playwright and critic as well as a career military man. Arriving fashionably late and undetected, he suddenly appears in a high balcony box to denounce the old ham declaiming away on stage. In the ensuing mayhem (eagerly anticipated by the audience), Cyrano ends up prepared to duel anyone so foolish as to mock his nose. Gradually, we come to see the perceptive, lonely creature beneath the bravado. You can already envision an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, a la “Phantom of the Opera.”

The one man who gets away with making fun of that nose is the handsome Christian de Neuvillette (Vincent Perez), but then, he is Roxane’s suitor and at her request has arrived to join Cyrano’s regiment. Although a wit in verbal parrying with Cyrano, Christian admits to becoming tongue-tied in expressing love and admiration for women. In one of the most famous instances of vicarious love in all of literature, Cyrano is soon writing Christian’s love letters to Roxane, who swoons in response, and is coaching him in his pursuit. All that has gone before and all that is to come--including the battle of Arras--provides a turbulent, large-scale backdrop for the disguised expression of Cyrano’s consuming love for Roxane and its consequences.

Within this most extravagant of romantic gestures that Rostand created for his tormented hero, the filmmakers and the actors express the full range of human nature. Cyrano is at once noble and self-sacrificing yet self-aggrandizing and -dramatizing as well. For more than 15 years, Depardieu has been establishing himself as a premier actor of his generation, right up there with Robert De Niro, his co-star in Bertolucci’s “1900.” Cyrano taps Depardieu’s incredible inner reserves, his passion, intellect and physicality, and he has the strength and presence to sustain one of the most drawn out death scenes of all time, showing us at once Cyrano’s vaunting gallantry and monumental, outrageous egoism. There is complexity and intelligence in Perez’s Christian and Brochet’s Roxane, too; they are not beautiful blanks but reflective individuals with their own emotional capacities. There’s also a delightful comic portrayal from Jacques Weber as another of Roxane’s suitors, a middle-aged nobleman and self-deluded poseur who has the pomposity knocked out of him in battle.

This “Cyrano” (rated PG) is well-nigh flawless, with scarcely a moment’s lull. Legions of people both in front and in back of Pierre Lhomme’s effortlessly fluid camera have striven successfully to make the past seem to be happening in the present. In addition to Lhomme, whose palette is muted and luminous, principal contributions are Franca Squarciapino’s period-perfect settings and costumes that seem lived in, and Jean-Claude Petit’s full-bodied score. Anthony Burgess’ fine English subtitles even go so far as to translate Rostand’s verses whenever feasible. And let’s not overlook Michele Burke, who designed that wonderful nose for Cyrano.

‘Cyrano de Bergerac’

Gerard Depardieu: Cyrano

Anne Brochet: Roxane

Vincent Perez: Christiane

An Orion Classics release. Producers Rene Cleitman, Michel Seydoux. Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Screenplay and adaptation Rappeneau, Jean-Claude Carriere; based on the play by Edmond Rostand. Camera Pierre Lhomme. Music Jean-Claude Petit. Production designer Franca Squarciapino. Film editor Noelle Boisson. With Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez, Jacques Weber, Roland Bertin. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours, 18 minutes.

MPAA-rated: PG (parental guidance suggested).