Summary:
Movie review of the French film "Cyrano de Bergerac."
Are you looking for a great French movie to show in your class? Well I think I found the answer. Cyrano de Bergerac. This is a love story with plenty of action.
Cyrano de Bergerac is about a man called Cyrano who has an unusually large nose. He is in love with his cousin Roxanne whom he grew up with. He has been afraid to tell her because he's afraid that she will laugh at him. Roxanne tells him that she is in love with someone and Cyrano thinks it's him until she tells him that the man she loves is beautiful. A man named Christian. Christian has just signed up to be in Cyranos' cadets. Roxanne wants Cyrano to promise to keep him safe and to make him write letters. Roxanne is a woman who swoons over the French language. You soon find out that Christian is a horrible writer and gets Cyrano to write letters for him. When Cyranos' regiment is sent off to fight the Spaniards he promises Roxanne that Christian will write her everyday. Cyrano writes the letters without Christian's knowledge and Roxanne soon realizes that she love Christian for his poetry not for his beauty.
You learn a lot by watching Cyrano de Bergerac. Even though the play was written in the 19th century it is set in the 17th century. The costumes are very authentic. I learned how people dressed in that time period. The women wore many layers of clothing with big full skirts. The men wore capes over their jackets and hats with big full feathers. I also learned a lot about the social life of that time period. When people went to the theater unlike today the wealthy people sat up high and the common people sat on the ground. Also it wasn't uncommon for fight to break out or for there to be gambling.
In the movie there were subtitles so I got to hear how the French language sounded. The sub titles are in yellow so it is kind of difficult to see especially at a distance so I was forced to focus more on listening. I was able to pick out words like j'ai soif and amour. I also got to hear the flow of the language because most of the movie was written in poetry.
Americans tend to focus more on the acting while the French focus more on the artistic and directing aspects of a movie. Cyrano de Bergerac was more of an artsy film. It focused more on things like the camera angles and lighting. At the end of the movie after Cyrano has died the camera goes up and away from the characters as if it's going to the moon.
Overall Cyrano de Bergerac was a great movie. I learned a couple of new words and what life was like in the 17th century. I would strongly recommend this movie if looking for a good French film to show in your class.
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