Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

Powerful

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Jose Ferrer became probably the most UN-deserved recipient of an Oscar in film history when he was presented with an Academy Award for 'best actor' in this drab filming of Edmond Rostand's wonderful play, 'Cyrano de Bergerac'.Ferrer's bombastically loud voice and tediously self-conscious acting destroys this little undertaking as soon as it gets started. Ferrer aggressively spits all of his dialogue while he poses and postures in defeatism to the lavish costumes and extravagance of Rostand's piece. Mala Powers plays Roxanne with a bit more subtlety, but she fails to impress in any way.There are some rather clueless people out there who feel that Ferrer's performance was "brilliant". Anyone who thinks that knows absolutely nothing about acting.

I would love to say that this is a great movie. It isn't, not by a long shot. Made on a skimpy budget with largely second-rate actors, this movie very seldom rises to the magnificence of one of the truly great masterpieces of French theater.Except when José Ferrer is playing Cyrano. He is not, in my opinion, as good as Gérald Depardieu, but very often he takes a fusty old translation and makes it live. Had the adaptation of the play been better, i.e., had Cyrano been given more of his lines and in a better translation, I'm sure that Ferrer would have shone even more. As it is, he is the one shining star in this otherwise very mediocre production of a true masterpiece. Make sure you see the Depardieu movie, which is glorious. Make sure you don't see the Kevin Kline New York theater production, which is leaden. But if you can appreciate a movie for one stellar performance, watch this as well. Ferrer deserved a better script and a better production, but he does a very fine job with what he's dealt here.

It would be a facile and ultimately hollow enterprise, my dear dear readers, to vainly deploy the serviceable adjectives and epithets, o, too vain labels, on this classic adaptation's Cyrano.Cyrano, a fantasy role, a role of swordsman—like D'Artagnan, Pardaillan, Fracasse, etc.-- belongs to a special class—the roles of fancy and verve, of brio and superior nonchalance coupled with agility-–to which Ferrer brings a certain exquisiteness and deftness and even precision of touch. It was already understood, I hope, that the Frenchmen patented this rank of characters. And also not only does the role of Cyrano belong to the named class; it is also interestingly written, well devised. (Pardaillan is crap; D'Artagnan is almost crap; Fracasse is better, yet quite gloomy; Cyrano is indeed a literary achievement.) Such roles ask for craft and verve, and a sharp sense of fun; Ferrer had those.

Enjoyed this great 1950 performance by Jose Ferrer who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for this role and he sure put his heart and soul into his role. Cyrano De Bergerac was a very smart man with great talent in fighting with a sword, a poet, actor and a man who desperately need a woman to love and marry. Cyrano De Bergerac acted like a Douglas Fairbanks Sr., jumping all around and killing large numbers of people who wanted to insult him and his friends. Cyrano falls in love with his cousin who is very attractive and he even helps her find a lover and actually acts as cupid. I thought that Cyrano's nose was very attractive and much bigger than Jimmy Durante.