Tag: Joe Wright

Cyrano

Rated: MCyrano

Directed by: Joe Wright

Screenplay by: Erica Schmidt

Based on: The stage musical adapted and directed by Erica Schmidt, from ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’ by Edmond Rostand, with music by Aaron & Bryce Dessner and lyrics by Matt Berninger & Carin Besser

Music by: Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner

Produced by: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Guy Heeley

Executive Produced by: Erica Schmidt, Sarah-Jane Robinson, Sherraz Shah, Lucas Webb, Matt Berninger, Carin Besser, Aaron Dessner

Starring: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Ben Mendelsohn.

‘My sole purpose on this earth is to love Roxanne (Haley Bennett),’ laments Cyrano (Peter Dinklage).

He at least has the decency to be a little embarrassed of the words uttered to his friend, Le Bret (Bashir Salahuddin).

It’s not the flowery words that embarrass Cyrano, but that he has admitted his love for the unreachable.

He is a midget and she a great beauty to be worshiped.

Cyrano and Roxanne are friends.  Best friends.  If he told her of his true feelings, he would lose her forever.

Cyrano sighs as he states, ‘I am living proof that God has a sick sense of humour.’

Pursued by the Duke De Guiche (Ben Mendelsohn), Roxanne’s loved by many.

The Duke is rich, she’s poor. Her handmaiden (Monica Dolan) reminds her, ‘Children need love. Adults need money.’

Roxanne wants love more than anything. And thinks she’s found it when she sees the dashing soldier, Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) for the first time.

It’s love at first sight.

Christian is handsome but without a sharp wit. It’s up to Cyrano to write letters on Christian’s behalf, to write all the things he’s ever wanted to tell Roxanne.  Only to be signed by Christian.

Cyrano is a musical romance set at a time of puppet shows, lace and ribbons, duels and corsets.

Not my favourite flavour of film.

I promised myself to keep an open mind.

Expect singing from the outset.

And also some great lines from Cyrano like, ‘Would you defend this… sausage?!’  He describes an actor wearing a red frizzy wig and well past his used-by date.

I quote the dialogue often because there is just so much to quote; the words, the lyrics roll like waves throughout the film.

The love story does cloy with Roxanne’s demand of a handsome Christian filled with handsome words – with the expectation of nothing less.

It’s all very pretty and irritating with the ink on the paper of the first letter making her nervous.

But wow, there are some spectacular scenes of clever camera work of sword fighting and the audience back-and-forth in the theatre; the quiet of breathing.

And then the tears started.

It wasn’t the love story that got me, but the soldiers singing the words of their letter to be sent to their loved ones back home.  The lyrics here are beautiful in their lack of sentiment.  That’s what got to me: the clear-sighted expression of feeling.

The words and lyrics of the film are more like poetic truth than song.

Yes, there are irritating, long-winded moments but Peter Dinklage as Cyrano has a way of balancing the sweetness of the romance with a wry wit.

And once the tears started, the rest of the film built on that emotion.

So I admit, I got into a musical romance.

Darkest Hour

Rated: PGDarkest Hour

Directed by: Joe Wright

Written by: Anthony McCarten

Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Lisa Bruce, Douglas Urbanski

Starring: Gary Oldman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Lily James, Stephen Dillane, Ronald Pickup and Ben Mendelsohn.

Set over the course of four weeks in 1940, Darkest Hour is based on the true story of Winston Churchill and the immense burden he carried as newly-appointed Prime Minister when Nazi Germany invaded Western Europe.

It’s a critical time in history.  A decision must be made to either fight in another world war against all odds, the Germans surrounding the entire British army on the shores of Dunkirk – or to negotiate with a madman.

The fight on Dunkirk is fresh in the minds of film enthusiasts after the recent release of Christopher Nolan’s memorable, ‘not-a-war movie’, Dunkirk.

Darkest Hour shows a different version of WWII, focussing on the same time in history yet here the story unfolds not on the ground – the soldiers dodging bullets or falling into the icy waters – here, we follow the men making the decisions and observe the politics and strategies of war held behind closed doors.  And with Churchill, sometimes the most important conversation taken on the telephone behind the door of the lavatory.

Darkest Hour is based on the beginnings of WWII, yes, but the story is about the man – Winston Churchill and all his flaws.  A man who has never taken the tube (well, only once during the strikes), a man whose wife (Kristen Scott Thomas) finds him intolerable but loves him anyway.  And no matter his power or position will always know him as, Piggy.

Churchill never gives up, and it’s precisely his flaws that give him the strength to succeed.

Gary Oldman is every bit deserving of his recent Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama.  See his acceptance speech here.

As Winston Churchill, Oldman’s barely recognisable as he embraces the part and becomes every bit the British Prime Minister affecting all the required mannerisms of the mumbling, alcoholic, cigar smoking, yet brilliant mind and oration of the man.

Ben Mendelsohn finally gets to be the good guy, here as King George VI.  Not the regal performance of Colin Firth in, The King’s Speech (2010) but suiting the tone of the film better with the gritty human nature of the characters used for amusement amongst all the seriousness of the story.

And there’s not many tricks here – director Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna, Pride & Prejudice, Anna Karenina) keeping any effects subtle with a sometimes lofty birds-eye-view to convey the overall feeling of politicians seeing the population as small parts to be manuvered for the greater good.

Mostly, this is a character-driven film, focussing on the dialogue and emotion of those who discuss the fortunes of thousands of lives.  We, as an audience, get a window into the world of Churchill as he weighs the cost; to ultimately decide no cost is too much – there is only perseverance to fight until the very end.

So, for all Churchill’s flaws, we are shown true grit and the character required when the world ceases to make sense.  And can the man speak!  The real pleasure of the film watching Churchill use his words to win over a nation, his famous speeches delivered by the believable performance of Gary Oldman.

Would I watch the film again?  Probably not.  This isn’t a thriller that keeps you on the edge, this is a stirring education and insight into just how close we came to losing our freedom.

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