no matter how good this movie was, that had to be the longest death scene that i have ever had the misfortune to see. can't we cut it short by like, ten miutes or so guys? i mean, a five minute death scene is fine, but when you're pushing fifteen to twenty minutes, come on, that's just a tad too over the top.
shareThe death scene is from the play. It is a 100-year old play by Edmond Rostand, the death scene is famous, no way they're going to make it shorter just to please your taste, man. Sorry. If you don't get the point of the play/film and the scenes in it, too bad for you, but it's up to you to make the effort to appreciate this masterpiece for the acclaimed classic that it is, not for Edmond Rostand or the makers of this film to make the effort to please a certain crowd of people incapable of appreciating it.
Or maybe you think they should make the "to be or not to be" monologue in Hamlet shorter too. Not very realistic, is it?
"You go to certain death.
- All death is certain!"
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
You're HOT!
On your train of thought, I think I just caught the caboose.
i enjoyed the historical bit and do appreciate the fact that this was indeed a play, but really, can you honestly say that you were completely enthralled for the whole twenty minutes? i doubt it.
shareBut there's a whole lot of drama that needs to be encapsulated in that protracted death scene. He was on his way to visit his cousin when he was so viciously attacked, but he struggled on, having been a vigorous man and desperate to see her again before he dies. Then the reading of the letter, which is a tender moment in itself, but also lets her slowly realise that, if he knows the letter by heart, he must have been the one who wrote it, and so on.
You could have had him get attacked, stumble through her doorway and say "I always loved you..." with his dying breath, but - be honest - where's the passion in that? It is the dramatic equivalent of a hamburger compared to a Chateaubriand steak, and, after all that had gone before, you would have felt cheated.
On your train of thought, I think I just caught the caboose.
Yes, I can honestly say that I was completely enthralled by it. I am a huge fan of the play, to the point that my nickname here is Onaryc (Cyrano backwards!) and I think the whole play leads up to that scene. It's called literary convention. What you say is like saying that musicals or operas are stupid because people don't sing about their lives in real life, or that soliloquies in plays are silly because nobody does it in reality either. Just like dying for 20 mns.
Plus, it is perfectly plausible that someone who has just got hurt like he was (he wasn't shot by a gun!) would take that long to even realize he was hurt that bad. And if he has things to say that have been on his mind for 20 years, he might just have the strength to do so. Now you might have to be french (like me) to fully appreciate the beauty of the language in the whole play including the last scene, but it seems that a lot of people who do not speak french enjoy the play just as much. In other words, I really do think your opinion, which I respect of course, says more about you than about the play, I'm afraid.
"You go to certain death.
- All death is certain!"
The death scene was what I loved about this movie. It makes the conclusion make sense. The long death scene completely concluded Cyrano's life perfectly. He spent months writing love letters for the one who loved the one he loved and his death scene kinda showed that.
Just how close can I get Lord to my surrender without losing all control.
Actually, yes. This is the most moving film scene I have ever watched.
I never tell the truth.
This is the most moving film scene I have ever watched.
I had the exact same thought - that must be the longest death scene I have ever watched. I actually didn't catch the actual death the first time. I realized I had been drifting and didn't understand why he was talking about his panache. I backed it up and watched the last minute or so again so I could understand it.
I was with the scene the whole way until he started off into the trees. At that point it felt like it was just overindulgence.
Don't get me wrong; I liked the movie. I just happened to have the same thought as you that I had not seen a longer death scene.
"My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the Whale Rider."
When I first saw it I thought it was exceedingly long... but I also thought it was kind of funny. Cyrano had to be overdramatic even to the end. It was fitting in my opinion. I wouldn't change it. If it was something I was supposed to take seriously, well, OOPS. It made me laugh because it was so long, like in those cartoons where someone would start to die... then jump back up and say "Alas! I am dyyiiing!" collapse again... get up, "THIS IS THE ENNNNDDD!" collapse again... "Make up your mind, man!"
--------------------
Am I speaking to Miranda now...?
I'm agree with the OP. I loved the ending but IMO could have been half short, then the whole scene would have worked better.
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
One simply must pay close attention to what is happening and what is being said during the death scene. It is long, but it is essential, and it is very moving if you pay attention. That may be difficult for those who have no sympathy for Cyrano and Roxane, and who cannot understand the French and have to follow the action between glances at the subtitles. To really appreciate this film, Depardieu's noble Cyrano, and Anne Brochet's enchanting Roxane, see the tepid Cyrano and Roxane being played by Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner on Broadway at this time.
shareOnayrc, I so agree with you. Movies these days, by and large, are made for idiots. The 1990 version of Cyrano is a perfect example of art come to startling, lush, passionate, tragic life. Gerard Depardieu's performance is a tour de force. It is not an Adam Sandler movie (thank God), therefore, one must use one's brain.
In this era of instant gratification it isn't surprising that most people can't sit through a story like this. It must tell itself to you slowly, opening like a flower.
If you want to watch a genuinely laughably over the top death scene, try Zhang Ziyi's in House of Flying Daggers. The whole cinema was laughing for that one when I saw it.
However, while obviously bombastic, I think the death scene in Cyrano (and the similar one in Crouching Tiger) is justified. For me these death scenes are more than just deaths, they are summations of life. In both cases, outward flamboyance hides an intensely private side to the character, which the audience has to see if we are to fully identify with them. And in both cases it wouldn't be plausible for the character to reveal their hand while it still could have made a difference – honour is only satisfied at the point of death. Of course, that is a terribly old fashioned sentiment. But Cyrano is never going to pitch up and say "Okay I'm dying, thought you should know I loved you all along, and by the way I wrote those letters". Important to note that Rostand's Cyrano was always old fashioned – he doesn't just appear so now, he was when Rostand first staged the play in the 1890s. Even the other characters think he's a throwback. Likewise Li Mu Bai will put duty before his personal happiness. And it is only at the end, when he realises he will never have more time, that he realises he has missed his chance. He too is a throwback, and is compared (favourably, it has to be said) with the young lovers in Crouching Tiger. So in each case, death is a final outpouring, and can be genuinely tragic as well as prolonged. At least that is my take.
I can see why some people get impatient with it though. Modern cinema has moved against this kind of theatrical melodrama – and with good reason (every leading man spending half of the last act carking it had probably become tiresome and commonplace). It's just here I happen to think it works and says something that can't be done in any other way.
You're absolutely right that the play was considered old-fashioned even when it was first produced -- and yet it was a big hit from the start. As Onaryc points out, 1) it is perfectly plausible that Cyrano would take that long both to die and to realise that he's dying, given his injury. And it absolutely fits with his character, and 2) although Burgess's translation is superior, for anyone who understands the original French, all of the dialogue is so beautiful that Cyrano might have taken another twenty minutes to kick the bucket and I would still have been enthralled. All a matter of taste, I suppose.
I hadn't quite tumbled to the similarity of his personality and death scene with that of Li Mu Bai, but it's an interesting point. I think I'll go and rent both and watch them one after the other. And House of Flying Daggers was indeed on the dire side.
Funniest comment on this thread so far, ChrisRichmond's:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
You're HOT!
>And it absolutely fits with his character, and 2) although Burgess's translation is superior, for anyone who understands the original French, all of the dialogue is so beautiful that Cyrano might have taken another twenty minutes to kick the bucket and I would still have been enthralled. All a matter of taste, I suppose.
Never a truer word. I personally prefer the "non merci!" scene with Le Bret. But on the other hand:
Mais aussi que diable allait-il faire,
Mais que diable allait-il faire en cette galère ?. . .
Philosophe, physicien,
Rimeur, bretteur, musicien,
Et voyageur aérien,
Grand riposteur du tac au tac,
Amant aussi—pas pour son bien !—
Ci-gît Hercule-Savinien
De Cyrano de Bergerac,
Qui fut tout, et qui ne fut rien,
Je ne savais pas que tu comprenais la langue de Rostand! C'est épatant! Et alors:
"N'écrire jamais rien qui de soi ne sortît,
Et modeste d'ailleurs, se dire: mon petit,
Sois satisfait des fleurs, des fruits, même des feuilles,
Si c'est dans ton jardin à toi que tu les cueilles!"
Ou, plutôt:
"...Mais je m'en vais, pardon, je ne peux faire attendre:
Vous voyez, le rayon de lune vient me prendre!"
And I couldn't wish for a more perfectly suited adieu!
We watched this in AP Literature today [with english subtitles, of course]. I thought the death scene was incredible, albeit a bit long. It was hilarious though because once he finally got to his last line everyone was just kind of like "eh...what's panache?" tehe.
T~O
Team Cedward =]
GOD, I KNOW. I had to watch this in my French II class and it seemed like 20 minutes before he finally died. Good movie though.
shareI could not agree with you more. The extended death scene is emblematic of the extended death and discomfort he has felt his entire life in being unable to express and share his love with Roxanne. Additionally, the extent he goes to in this scene only adds to show what sacrifice he will make to keep any unhappiness and pain from Roxanne. How do you cut such suffereing short - you don't without ruining the deepest essence of the scene!?!?!?!?
It would be like taking a gun and shooting Christ on the cross ... just get it over with...and loose all the symbolic depth and meaning that existed in the greatest of sacrifices.
I must admit that i haven't seen this film in years but at the time, what struck me as incredibly important about the death scene, was that it was filmed in natural light and it's filmed at dusk. As the day ends, so does his life. The light fades as his life fades. I remember it being incredibly effective. I need to see it again soon....
share"My panache!"
shareIt was very moving especially when Roxanne finally realized that it was Cyrano who wrote the letters.
"My panache!" Beautiful ending.