Cyrano de Bergerac
About Cyrano de Bergerac
In seventeenth-century Paris, Cyrano de Bergerac stops a performance, then kills the Vicomte de Valvert in a duel while reciting a ballade about his own nose. He loves his cousin Roxane, but she loves the tongue-tied guardsman Christian, so Cyrano writes Christian's letters and speaks for him under her balcony. Roxane marries Christian. In the war against Spain, Christian is killed before Cyrano can tell her the truth, and she enters a convent. Years later, mortally hurt after a carriage runs him down, Cyrano recites the last letter from memory. Roxane understands the words were his, and he dies.
Cast & crew
More about Cyrano de Bergerac
Michael Gordon directed. Stanley Kramer produced. Carl Foreman wrote the screenplay from Brian Hooker's 1923 English version of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play. United Artists released it in New York on November 16, 1950. The company rehearsed for ten days and shot for thirty. U.S. rentals were $1,900,000, and the film recorded a loss of $300,000. Rudolph Sternad built sets on wheels so the crew could work in half the stage space. Cyrano's death, a falling log in the play, was changed to a trampling by a carriage.
Themes
Background
This was the first English-language film of Rostand's play. Earlier versions had been made in other languages.
In film history
Ferrer carried his Broadway Cyrano into the film, and the performance is what reviewers singled out.
Making
Foreman kept Hooker's blank verse. Gordon staged the duel, the balcony, and the convent visit as the three big set pieces.
Reviews
Bosley Crowther, in The New York Times, wrote that Ferrer spoke Rostand's poetry with a richness few actors had managed on screen, and that he carried the duel and the sentiment. Variety said Gordon's direction did not always meet the play, and that the picture belonged to Ferrer.
Look
Franz Planer shot the film in black and white. He won the Golden Globe for black-and-white cinematography.
Technique
Sternad's wheeled sets cut the studio space in half. The nose was a fresh plastic piece each day, built with grain alcohol and applied in 45 minutes.
Music
Dimitri Tiomkin composed the score.
Preservation
The film entered the U.S. public domain in the mid-1980s. The National Film Registry selected it in 2022.
Notes
- José Ferrer plays Cyrano. He had played the part on Broadway and won the 1947 Tony Award for it.
- Mala Powers plays Roxane. William Prince plays Christian de Neuvillette.
- Morris Carnovsky is Le Bret, Ralph Clanton is the Comte de Guiche, and Lloyd Corrigan is the pastry-cook Ragueneau.
- Two prosthetic noses were made for each shooting day. Each took about six hours to build and 45 minutes to put on. Plastic surgeon Harold M. Holden advised.
- Ferrer's Oscar was the first Academy Award for Best Actor given to a Hispanic performer.
- The film entered the U.S. public domain in the mid-1980s.
- The National Film Registry selected it in 2022.
Awards
- Academy Award for Best Actor (José Ferrer)
- Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama (José Ferrer)
- Golden Globe for Best Cinematography – Black and White (Franz Planer)
- National Board of Review Top Ten Films
Scenes
- Cyrano kills Valvert on the last line of a ballade about his nose.
- Hidden under the balcony, he woos Roxane in Christian's voice.
- Dying, he recites the last letter, and Roxane recognizes the words.
Influenced by
- Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)
- Brian Hooker's 1923 English translation
Also available
- Internet Archive (Cyrano_DeBergerac)
- Wikimedia Commons (Cyrano de Bergerac (1950).webm)
Quotes
A great nose indicates a great man—genial, courteous, intellectual, virile, courageous.
