In 1897, 29-year-old Edmond Rothdan wrote Cyrano de Bergerac. He called the five-act play of poetry a heroic comedy. Soon, the poetic play became one of the most performed plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It made Edmond Rothdan so well known that four years later, at the age of 33, Edmond Rothdan was elected a member of the French Academy.
Why was this play so popular at the time? Because it gave the bewildered French a sense of courage and honor, which was the spiritual strength necessary for the chaotic France to enter the new century.
Of course, the art form of the play is also the main reason for its success. Since it is a poetic drama, the dialogues of the characters in the play must be poems. Rosdan used Alexandrine with 12 syllables per line. Grid did not restrain Rothdan's lively Vance. In the strict rhythm, witty words can be found everywhere. Sometimes the 12 syllables of a poem are uttered by two or three people immediately after each other, which is both natural and in line with dramatic actions. This liveliness and harmony of words and rhythms creates an unprecedented heroic comedy mood, conveying inspiring spiritual power.
France was in desperate need of this spiritual strength at the end of the 19th century. The Franco-Prussian War not only completely frustrated the arrogance of the French in the Napoleonic era, but they lost not only an entire era, but also the territories of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine. This was followed by the Paris Commune uprising and the bloody suppression of the uprising. The Dreyfus case, concocted by the anti-Semites, trampled down what was left of the conscience of the French nation. When the famous writer Zola shouted "I accuse...", France was almost on the brink of national division. As time draws closer to the end of the century, the spiritual crisis also intensifies. Anarchists put bombs in parliament, scandals of corruption and lawlessness in government departments are commonplace, right-wing conservative forces advocating national chauvinism are unprecedentedly active, and new ideas that deny old values are also widely disseminated. I feel lost in the overwhelming changes, and the decadent air spreads like a plague. Given such a social background, it is not surprising that a heroic comedy is warmly received.
For a hundred years, "Cyrano de Bergerac" has often served as the basis for adaptations by filmmakers because of its particularly dramatic plot. By the time Rappo made the film, at least seven films had been based on Rothdan's blueprints, including Michael Gordon's film of the same name. Joseph Ferrer won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1950 for playing Cyrano. Even the famous film master Orson Welles wanted to adapt "Cyrano de Bergerac" into a film, and he actually spent nearly a year on it. This heroic comedy from the late 19th century still touches the hearts of filmmakers because some of its spirit still has an irresistible appeal to modern people. One hundred years later, the French are facing another new century. Before the threshold of the 21st century, the French have new confusion and new confusion. Political scandals, worker strikes, student turmoil, peasants feeling the threat to their markets from the European Community, immigration from the old colonies exacerbating the employment crisis, bombs of terrorism heard in Paris, reunification The future of Germany’s influence on France is uncertain, the integration of Europe is unpredictable for France’s economic development, the divorce rate is skyrocketing, AIDS and drug addiction threaten the younger generation, and the proliferation of American films has accelerated the depression of the French film industry. The collapse of values leads to a general loss of spirit. Just like the appearance of the Eiffel Tower in Paris at the end of the 19th century as a symbol of the end of the old century, today there is a glass pyramid designed by an American architect in the courtyard of the Louvre Museum, which is the cultural pride of the French nation. At a time like this, it is equally no surprise that Cyrano de Bergerac is once again a sensation in France.
However, not necessarily! Shortly before Rappo's film, which won ten Césars, the Paris stage had staged Rothdan's original play, with Cyrano being played by famous actor Belmondo. The performance of the stage play, although a lot of advertisements were made, turned out to be relatively cold. Seeing the failure of the stage play, Rapno still has the courage to adapt the film, which shows that he has the confidence to make the film successful. Where does the grasp come from? From his understanding of the artistic characteristics of the film and his conception of the film.
The poetic drama "Cyrano de Bergerac" is almost the same age as the film. However, since 1895, the film has undergone qualitative changes, and has evolved from the early recording method to the art of sound and picture. Movement expands the expressive time and space of this art, and even extends this time and space to people's inner world. Rapunot and his collaborator, the famous film screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, started with the idea of a concept that would allow the characters in "Cyrano de Bergerac" to fully move. suitable time and space. They created such a time and space, they recreated that world in the 17th century, recreated the turbulent times at that time. There are more than 40 large-scale sets for more than 2,000 actors. They were bustling in the theater with three floors of auditoriums in the Burgundy building, watching Cyrano and Viscount Valville duel in the square in front of the building, chatting and laughing in the Lagnot bakery with three entrances, and in Gasth In the magnificent martial arts hall of the Kony Legion, they practiced and exercised, charged on the battlefield of Arras, and walked and talked in the large garden of the monastery. Such an open space is not only something that the stage cannot provide, it has not even been seen in past adaptations of the same name. The problem is not the scale of the set, the magnitude of the still space, the art of cinema is how to mobilize the space. For example, in the film directed by Michael Gordon, the scene is also huge. But while Joseph Ferrer, who played Cyrano, was gushing, the extras were just the background dumbfounded. Such a space is just a dramatic scene. However, in Rapuneau's films, the picture beyond language is often as important as language, it makes the space feel real, it makes sense, for example, in the sequence of the Burgundy mansion, when people flock to the theater at the beginning. The camera inadvertently draws our attention to a child with intense curiosity in his eyes. Later, when Cyrano duels Valville in front of the Burgundy mansion, we see a close-up of the child again, his eyes full of admiration for Cyrano. In order to facilitate the duel, Cyrano threw the cloak aside and handed the hat to a bystander. This bystander is the child. When Cyrano stabbed Viscount Varville and the onlookers scattered, we saw the kid with Cyrano's hat in his hand, running nervously all the way to the front of the camera, and then running back in reverse. Finally he met Cyrano in an alley and gave him the hat back. This child is not in the original script. Rapuneau and Carrière have created such a wordless image that makes the space of this passage not only full of realism but also rich in meaning. The children's eyes provide the audience with the psychological data of the onlookers!
Of course, Rapuno's main means of mobilizing space is movement. He keeps the actors and the camera in perpetual motion without pause. Take the passage of the Burgundy Mansion as an example. Cyrano, played by Depardieu, sometimes recites more than 50 lines of 12-syllable verses in one breath. While he was reciting, he walked around, pointing his finger at every moment. At that time, the crowd of onlookers were also moving non-stop. The camera not only "shakes" around the people, but also patrolled up and down, left and right, wishing to sweep all the corners. And these movements are all centered on Cyrano. In this way, the spaces centered on Cyrano appear so real, making the audience feel like they are there, and even experience the indescribable turmoil, excitement, unease, joy and panic that people there feel. Viscount Varville wanted to leave after humiliating Cyrano, but Cyrano followed him and sneered at him. He got on the carriage angrily and jumped out of the carriage. At this time, the camera lens seems to become his breathing organ, conveying his turbulent emotions to the audience. And such a long follow-up shot, the rhythm of the follow and shake, is so in tune with the cadence of Cyrano's 12-syllable line of poetry, and the shot seems to have become Cyrano's vocal organ. Epitaxy. In this way, the movement of the lens creates not only the space, but also the emotions of the people moving in the space.
Lighting gives the space of the film a special meaning of time. Most of the films show night or dim places. This is symbolic in emphasizing the dark side of Cyrano's personality. Cyrano's rambunctious body, brave and violent, is actually his cloak to hide his inner pain and elegance. So his feats are always accompanied by dim moonlight. The duel outside the Burgundy mansion, the ambush to disperse 100 killers, the tenderness to Roxana through Christian's mouth, and the final reading of Christian's suicide note written by Roxana at the end, all happened under the moonlight. , but sometimes accompanied by staggered lights and shadows, sometimes covered by drizzle, but the scene where he died in Roxana's arms, the moon was bright, like day.
In the past, the adaptors believed that the verses in the original work could not be adopted by the film. But, as mentioned earlier, Edmund Rothdan's language and rhythm are one of the main reasons for the success of the original show. Therefore, Rapuneau adopted a method similar to that adopted by Lawrence Oliver in his adaptation of Hamlet, that is, retaining the form of poetry. It is true that Rapunor did not and could not retain all of Rothdan's dialogue. As a film, he had to make a lot of additions and deletions to the original dialogue. It is easy to delete, but not easy to add. Because Rothdan's play is different from Shakespeare's play. Shakespeare used plain (i.e. no rhyme) poems, and Rothdan used Alexandrine with 12 syllables per line. Rapnot and Carrière followed the unity of rhythm in their adaptation. "I want the dialogue in the screenplay to feel like it would have been written by Rothdan himself," Rappo said. The film retains the language charm of the original show, which proves to be a major reason for its success.
But getting a modern actor to read a 12-syllable line of dialogue in a film that feels so realistic without appearing artificial or out of place is no easy task. The contradiction between the rhythm of language and active movement sometimes becomes an almost insurmountable obstacle. The brilliant actor Depardieu has done an excellent job of overcoming that hurdle. He acts very naturally, and his 1400 or so lines are spoken in different moods, different rhythms of activity, and different situations. He played a legendary hero who was both humorous and brave, and especially vulnerable at heart, so well that one can believe that he will be the benchmark for the role for a long time to come.
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