Cyrano, the wonderful musical with Peter Dinklage: the preview clip

For years Cyrano de Bergerac represented the prototype of what we would now call the “friendzone”: he larded himself all his life to have the attentions of the beautiful Rossana without, however, ever having the courage to declare himself, at least until the latter she summons him not to declare her feelings, but to help her win another’s heart. 125 years after Edmound Rostand’s work, it’s Joe Wrightformer director of Pride and Prejudice and of Anna Kareninato revive the myth of Cyrano using a new key: that of the musical, inspired by the homonymous production written by Erica Schmidt and enriched by story of a new diversity. If the Cyrano original suffered from having a very long nose that could not reward him in attractiveness, Wright’s is suffering from dwarfism, even though he relies on an intelligence and a dialectical capacity out of the ordinary. The spokesperson is Peter Dinklagewho had already harnessed some of those talents as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, but that here, in Cyranoreaches a level of pathos and acting so high that it almost completely overshadows the brilliant and wine-loving heir to the series that brought him success and earned him a slew of Emmys.

In the new Cyrano, Dinklage, in addition to being a skilled swordsman, decides to satisfy the desire of the beautiful Rossana, interpreted by Haley Bennett, wife of Joe Wright, and to introduce her to a cadet named Christian De Neuvillette – the African American actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. – whom she says she loved at first sight even though she never spoke to him. Since we are in the seventeenth century and Tinder does not exist, the best way to woo a lady is correspondence, but not just any one, because Rossana has always paid attention to form and content: for her a verse is not a rhetorical habit, but an expressive means capable of telling her something more than who composes it and who recites it. The problem is that Christian for those verbal skirmishes in which Cyrano excels is completely denied, leading the protagonist to write on his behalf the letters addressed to Rossana so that the young woman can fall in love with him. The words chosen with great care by Cyrano have the desired effect and lead the woman to doting on Christian, even if the plot is certainly not destined to be untidy here, since, together with Cyrano’s unsatisfied desire, the perfidious Count De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn), a rich and powerful man who will do everything to get Rossana to marry him, also gets in the way.

For all those who do not know the story, Cyrano will conquer for the drama of the story and the strong romanticism of a man who, despite the difficulties, will never stop loving the woman of his life, dragging us with his hand into a drama where love will once again be the master, not without a very bitter price to pay. To embellish this elegant production, halfway between Moulin Rouge And Marie Antoinetteis the spectacular setting of the Sicily – the film was, in fact, shot between Noto, Catania, Scicli and Etna at the height of the pandemic -, the soundtrack signed by The National and the sumptuous costumes signed by Massimo Cantini Parrini, with the hope that, in this round, he will be able to take home the Oscar that was shamefully denied him in 2021 for the Pinocchio by Matteo Garrone. In general, it is good to keep in mind a precious lesson, that is, that even the classics of the Comédie-Française like Cyrano they can be re-proposed and revised without crying out for scandal and reproach. With all due respect to the purists convinced that the works should not be touched or altered in any way. The film is produced by MGM and Working Title Films and distributed in Italian cinemas by Eagle Pictures.

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