Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

In seventeenth century Paris, Cyrano de Bergerac, a gentleman equally accomplished with pen and sword, interrupts the performance at the Hôtel de Bourgogne Theatre, appalled by the star’s bad acting, and refunds the audience’s money himself.

A nobleman, Valvert, provokes a duel by commenting on Cyrano’s nose, and Cyrano improvises a poem as they fight, delivering the fatal thrust during the final refrain. Cyrano’s friend, Le Bret, warns that his brash behavior will make him dangerous enemies. Cyrano admits to Le Bret that he is in love with his beautiful cousin, Roxane. Pastry chef Ragueneau tells them a nobleman about whom he wrote comic verses has hired men to ambush him on the way home. Cyrano battles and defeats all the ruffians.

Roxane tells Cyrano she is in love with a handsome guardsman, Christian.

At the guardhouse, Cyrano tells Christian that Roxane wishes to receive a letter. Christian confesses he is not a good writer. Cyrano offers to aid Christian, and the young man accepts.

As Roxane ecstatically quotes from „Christian’s“ letters and speeches, Cyrano basks in the indirect praise. Christian tells Cyrano he no longer needs his help, and Cyrano hides behind a bush and listens as Roxane asks Christian to rhapsodize on the theme of love. Christian’s attempts to improvise fail miserably, and Roxane indignantly goes inside. Christian appeals to Cyrano, who stands in the shadows beneath Roxane’s balcony and prompts Christian, then steps in and takes his place, speaking his own passionate feelings under cover of darkness.

At the end of Cyrano’s speech, Christian joins Roxane on the balcony and they kiss. A monk then comes by with a letter from Antoine De Guiche, the Cardinal’s nephew, saying his regiment has been ordered to the front to fight the Spanish and insisting that Roxane marry him at once. Roxane tells the monk that he has been instructed to marry her to Christian, and when De Guiche arrives, Cyrano detains him until the wedding is over.

Furious at the deception, De Guiche orders Christian to leave for the front at once.

Christian realizes that Cyrano is in love with Roxane, and tells him that he must tell her the truth so that she can choose between them. Before Cyrano can reveal his love to Roxane, however, Christian volunteers for a dangerous mission and is mortally wounded, and Cyrano tells the dying Christian that Roxane chose him.

Fourteen years pass, during which Cyrano visits Roxane each week at the convent where she has lived since Christian’s death. On his deathbed, Cyrano asks Roxane to read her last letter from Christian. He recites aloud with great feeling, and Roxane suddenly recognizes the voice she heard from her balcony long ago. Cyrano dies, and Roxane mourns the one true love she has lost twice.

Cast:

„Der letzte Musketier“