Product Details

• Actors: Gérard Depardieu, Anne Brochet, Vincent Perez, Jacques Weber, Roland Bertin
• Directors: Jean-Paul Rappeneau
• Writers: Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Edmond Rostand, Jean-Claude Carrière
• Producers: André Szöts, Michel Seydoux, René Cleitman
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home E
• VHS Release Date: November 24, 1993
• Run Time: 137 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302176778
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #187,161 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Director Jean-Paul Rappeneau and cowriter Jean-Claude Carriere had the brilliant idea of casting France's most lovably vulnerable hunk, the massive Gerard Depardieu, in one of French literature's meatiest roles: the sword-wielding poet Cyrano. Equipped with a massive nose and a heart to match, Depardieu soars as the heart-broken soldier who must lend his words of love to another man to woo the woman he yearns for. Rappeneau spared no expense in taking this Edmond Rostand play into realistic locations for the battle scenes in the second act, making the film as exciting as it is romantic and funny. Depardieu attacks the role in great gulps, consuming all the oxygen in any room he enters. Macho but sensitive, he creates a larger-than-life Cyrano, whose wrenching sadness at the lack of interest from his lady love will have you reaching for the tissues. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ""We All Have Our Wounds" ~ A Romantic Film For The Ages, June 2, 2007

By 

Brian E. Erland "Rainbow Sphinx" (Brea, CA - USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cyrano de Bergerac (DVD)

Note: French with optional English and Spanish subtitles.

This French language film adaptation of the classic 'Cyrano de Bergerac' released in '90 is without question the most enjoyable 138 minutes in front of the television screen I've experienced in quite some time. Everything about this production is absolute perfection; cinematography, settings, music, screenplay and of course acting.

Gerard Depardieu is an unstoppable force of nature as the eloquent but hot-headed Cyrano. He thunders and rages about one moment only to suddenly turn ethereal and wax poetic the next. The lovely Anne Brochet is a wonderful complement to the blustering Cyrano as his unattainable Roxane and Vincent Perez delivers a strong performance as the handsome but slow tongued Christian.

The dialogue is crisp, textured and witty, however if you're French impaired as I am you'll probably have trouble keeping up with the subtitles. But that's OK, you'll just catch the missing parts the next time you watch and you will definitely watch again and again.

78 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointment in long-awaited release., March 25, 2004

By 

K. Bowden "Zodgilla" (Richmond, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Cyrano de Bergerac (DVD)

I'd been waiting years for this to be released on DVD, it's a fabulous movie, my absolute favorite adaptation of the original play - however, MGM messed up.

This edition is a matted letterbox, which means that it's actually a 4:3 TV image with the full image reduced to fit on the screen of a traditional TV screen and has black mattes on the top and bottom.

However, it should have been presented in anamorphic widescreen - which gives the same presentation on a 4:3 TV but also fits a widescreen television set.

As it is, it will not display properly on a widescreen tv - the image is either stretched out (so that everyone and everything is flat) or is enlarged beyond the border of the tv screen - thus cutting off the subtitles! My wide television has 6 separate display formats but I cannot format a full image on my screen that is not warped or severely cropped. Extremely disappointing.

I'm hoping for a new true anamorphic widescreen edition to be released eventually, but at least I have the film for now.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and beautiful, June 4, 2007

By 

J. Michael (Now Born) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cyrano de Bergerac (DVD)

I take Cyrano seriously. For me, Rostand's play, as known to me through Brian Hooker's translation and Jose Ferrer's performance, is a force that has never ceased to inspire, sustain and enrich my life since I first came across it in high school. I show no patience for translations or productions that fail (as I see it) to convey the poetry and grandeur of both the language and the characters. Having said that, I thought this French production of Cyrano was magnificent and will be seen as the definitive modern version for many years to come.

As opposed to the 1950 Jose Ferrer classic, whose sets were rather bare, and whose supporting cast was somewhat cartoonish (which still doesn't detract from Ferrer's tour de force), this production achieves both realism and romance in its beautifully lavish and detailed sets and costumes, not to mention its expertly chosen cast. At all times, you are made to feel as if you were really there, watching real people converse in 17th century France (although I realize that real people don't speak in rhyming couplets), but at other times, such as with the balcony scene, you are transported into a dream or a poem, which is right and proper for this play. I had doubts about Depardieu, but I was able to see him as Cyrano, at least physically. However, he struck me as somewhat too blustering and not as refined as I would expect the character to be (Ferrer was much cooler and nobler, in my view), but I suppose Depardieu knows more about French panache than I do. Unfortunately, the English subtitles employ the execrable Anthony Burgess translation, but that won't be too much of an annoyance to anyone who already has the lines of Hooker rolling around in their head. This is a great movie which should be treasured by any fan of Cyrano, although I would recommend that newcomers should see the Ferrer version first.