Cirano di Bergerac

I have always been attracted to the story of CYRANO DE BERGERAC. I first encountered it as a CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED comic book back in the early 1960s. Shortly after that I saw the famous 1950 film version with Jose Ferrrer which appeared many times on TV when I was growing up. Once I got to college, I read the original Edmond Rostand play but in an English translation.

Years later came the Steve Martin adaptation ROXANNE (1987) and finally, what for me is my personal favorite, the 1990 French version with Gerard Depardieu. Then in 1996 I finally saw the 1925 silent version when it first appeared on VHS. It was a joy to behold but unfortunately the musical accompaniment was substandard and badly performed. 3 years later it made it to DVD and this problem had been corrected. The DVD score by Kurt Kuenne is not only well performed, it enhances the images as a good silent film score should.

This CYRANO easily holds its own against the others especially now as many people are discovering silent films for the first time, thanks to another French film of recent vintage, THE ARTIST. The first thing people notice is that the film appears to be in color. It wasn't shot that way, it was hand stenciled in an arduous process employed by Pathe. The film was completed in 1922 but not released until 1925. Today the process looks like computer colorization but back then it was astonishing.

However any CYRANO must rise or fall on the strength of the titular performance and Pierre Magnier, who understudied the original Cyrano, is unbelievably romantic. The print used for this 1999 presentation has not been fully restored and is conflated from several others. It provides consistency in the story line but the picture quality varies. While not perfect, it's still way above average and is a must for fans of silent cinema and especially of Cyrano himself...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

Although I am a dedicated watcher of old movies, including silents, I must confess some are more of a trial than a pleasure. But that is certainly not the case with this 1925 Italian produced silent film of Rostand's famous play. Sure, doing a silent version of a very talky play like CYRANO DE BERGERAC presents considerable problems for the director. Here, they are partly solved by very frequent, some might think incessant, title cards, presented simultaneously in Spanish and English. The bilingual presentation suggests that the single surviving copy which provided this restoration was probably an export print.

For the silent era, the acting here is rather restrained, suggesting that maybe the cast were stage trained people. Since I presume almost everyone knows the "Cyrano" story, I'll skip over any synopsis attempt, and comment upon what for me was the most intriguing aspect of the film. I refer to the colour process used. It was called the "Pathe Stencil Process", and I confess to an imperfect understanding of exactly how it was worked. It appears that individual frames were projected on ground glass slides, hand coloured by artists, and these plates then used to produce the individual "colour" frames in the final print. This was a painfully slow process. Witness that the film was started in 1922, and release prints were not available until 1925.

If you find the editing choppy at times, probably the blame lies on how exhibitors handled the single surviving print when it was in general release. In those days, it was not uncommon for an exhibitor to edit out portions of a film which he did not like, or perhaps to simply shorten the film. See, the shorter the film, the more audiences you could run by it. Anyway, this old film is worth a look. The hand colouring is used mostly on the costumes, sometimes on faces and backgrounds. The idea, perhaps, was to recreate the feeling of old paintings, not real life colour. Note that in the period 1922 to 1925, the 2-strip Technicolor process was under development, and might have been available to the producers for testing or use. In any case, they didn't use it, and we have something unique as a result.

Though not as good the 1950 version due to an imperfect by the guy playing Cyrano, this movie needs to be seen to study its basque tones and exquisite look which captures 17th Century France perfectly. The love story is good and the look on Roxanne and Cyrano's face in the final scene is priceless. The make-up artist deserves a special acknowledgement for that alone. As, I said, watch to see an example of how the cinematogaphy, art design, costume design and make-up of a movie can help to elevate it.

I rarely comment on films except when moved as with this "Cirano". How remarkably odd that a silent film can capture the magical spell of language without sound. This is a masterpiece as it towers above not only the many Cyrano's, but because it is an ultimate film experience. Without the broad acting of typical foreign silent films, the nuanced humor and deep sadness are captured within a a palette that astonishes one. The belly laughs are here as well as the scenes with language and acting that brings tears to one's eyes. The demise of Cyrano here is one we all might wish for as we battle death with our sword as he approaches so we might protect our white plume. The incredible arduous crude color technique soon sweeps one under its spell as it is the chroma of 17th century paintings, and therefore the life, of that time. It's taste and restraint is overwhelming. If one loves silent films, this is a must. If one never saw a silent film, this is a must. It is the reason why we make movies.

I love silent films, yet am shocked that I hadn't heard about this film long before--since it is one of the very best silent films ever made. While the story of Cyrano itself didn't excite me all that much (having seen a few versions already), I am very glad that I took the trouble to see this wonderful film.

Why is it so wonderful? Well, first, it's so beautiful. It's the only truly full-length film I have ever seen that was hand-colored from start to finish. This means that assembly lines of people actually went to the trouble of hand painting each individual cell to give the film the appearance of a color film. Now in the silent era they did make a few 2 color-Technicolor films, but they really didn't have the same vivid look as this film--with "colors" really just being variations on red and green. They also made quite a few hand-colored shorts in the early part of the 20th century--but most of these were only about five minutes long--here we have a film that is almost two hours of surprisingly high quality painted images. That and the almost pristine print made for a truly luminous film--one that cannot be matched in the era. Secondly, the musical score accompanying this DVD release is one of the best I have heard--it's far better than the average score--with full orchestra and a score that fits the film.

As for the plot, it's about what you'd expect from a very good version of Cyrano and stacks up nicely compared to the Gérard Depardieu and José Ferrer versions. Interestingly, the lead in the 1925 version looks an awful lot like Ferrer.

The production is also quite grand--with expensive sets, large battle scenes and lots of wonderful period costumes. This was obviously a labor of love and actually took three years to bring to the screen (mostly due to the hand-coloring but also due to the terrific production values). See this film and see just how good a great silent can stack up against any film--including the excellent sound versions.