CYRANO, MY LOVE

France, 2018, 115 minutes, Colour.

Thomas Soliveres, Olivier Gourmet, Mathilde Seogner, Tom Leeb, Lucy Boujenah, Clementine Celarie, Dominique Pinon, Simon Abkarian.

Directed by Alexis Michalik.

While Cyrano is in the title of this affectionate and humorous film, Cyrano de Bergerac is not the main character. Rather, it is the playwright, Edmund Rostand, who created him for the stage, based on a 17^th century character.

The writer-director, Alexis Michalik, was intrigued by the film version of Shakespeare in Love, and wanted to do something similar for Rostand. He wrote a play for the theatre and has now adapted it for cinema. He himself plays a small role as playwright Georges Feydeau.

It is 1897, Rostand, still a young man, has not written a play for two years. In contact with the great actor of the period, Constant Coquelin (played with enthusiastic exuberance by Belgian actor, so often seen in sombre dramas, Olivier Gourmet). His last play, starring the great Sarah Bernhardt, has been a flop. He promises the actor a play on Cyrano to Bergerac. But he has not written a line.

Rostand, played by Thomas Soliveres, is a small man, anxious, a wife and children, encouraged by his lively friend, Leo (Thomas Leeb) moves in the theatre world, in the local bars, speculating about several actresses, Leo falling in love, Edmund attracted but devoted to his wife.

The film offers an imagined writing of the play, deadlines, presentation to the actor, his approval and disapproval, hurrying to finish. In the background there is great detail of the theatre world of the time, even a visit by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, the business people, the directors, the casting, the technical putting on of the play, the atmosphere of the theatre.

The sequences outside Paris are performances of the play in towns in central France.

Audiences who enjoyed Shakespeare in Love will be entertained by this variation on the theme. Fiction, but imaginative fiction.

1. A film for French audiences? Their knowledge of French theatre, Edmund Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac? For international audiences, the many versions, the cinema versions? Jose Ferrer winning an Oscar, Gerard Depardieu in the 1980s, Peter Dinklage in the 2020s? The recapitulation of photos during the final credits?
2. A fiction, the inspiration of Shakespeare in Love? A playwright, his talent, writer’s blocks, deadlines, family and relationships?
3. 1897, the recreation of the period, costumes, décor, changing styles and amenities, the moving towards the modern era?
4. The theatre, the theatres themselves, stage and prosceniums, behind-the-scenes, the auditoriums, the audiences, audience responses?
5. Rostand, his reputation, his flop, despite Sarah Bernhardt, no play for two years, his young age, wife and children, anxious, his friendship with Leo? The contact with Constant Coquelin?
6. Leo, outgoing, supportive, the actresses, night out, attractions, encouragement?
7. Cocquelin, his status and actor, larger than life, comic touches, his performances, interest in Rostand, the promise of the play, declaiming, rehearsing, involvement?
8. Rostand, the family situation, his wife, love, children, providing a living, his anxieties?
9. The women, actresses, possibilities for the play, finding the right Roxanne?
10. The deadlines, hurrying to complete the play, giving it in stages to the actor, the encouragement, yet the desperation?
11. On location, the provinces, the theatres, the financial backing, financial discussions, the staging, the director, the complications and the anxieties?
12. The performance, success, return to Paris, staging, and beginning the life of a French classic?