Director Joe Wright had always had a very special relationship with the work of Edmond Rostand ‘Cyrano de Bergerac’. As a teenager, he watched the movie Jean-Paul Rappeneau played by Gerard Depardieu and he felt challenged by her. At that time he felt the same as her character, in her case because he had dyslexia and was overweight. He wanted to be loved by those he loved and, if he didn’t get it, he felt very hurt by all the insecurities he accumulated. “It seemed that this story spoke directly to me & rdquor ;, says Joe Wright in a talk that we have through Zoom.
In 2018, he attended a small showing of a new stage version of ‘Cyrano’ in Chester, Connecticut. she directed it Erica Schmidt and it was starred by her husband, Peter Dinklage, and Wright’s recent girlfriend, Haley Bennett. He was very impressed with his performances and decided that he wanted to make a movie based on that work. The two couples began to work, Wright and Schmidt on the script and Dinklage and Bennett in their respective incarnations of Cyrano and Roxanne.
“From the beginning I was clear about how I wanted to approach the film. As in the play, Cyrano would not have the nose that had characterized him in our imaginary until now. Plus, I wanted to decontextualize it from any time and space, as if it were a fantasy period and that everything was impregnated with that ethereal sensation, almost as if it were a fairy tale. I wanted to play with the concept of abstraction”.
hatching of the musical
It is the first time that Joe Wright tackles a musical film, precisely in a year in which the genre has experienced a new resurgence, from Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of ‘West Side Story’ to ‘tick tick… Boom!’ by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Joe Wright thinks that, after the pandemic, the public needs escapism, but also movies that connect with their own lives. Spectacle and emotion. He admits that it is not a genre that he is passionate about (he cites ‘Cabaret’ and ‘Dancing in the Dark’ as his favourites) and that sometimes it seems too artificial. He has opted for naturalism. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges he faced was getting the actors to sing live in front of the camera, so that their breaths, their imperfections, could be felt. “I wanted it to be something very emotional and aim for a certain level of intimacy. Of course, it was a challenge, both for me and for the actors, because if the proposal did not work, the whole thing would fall apart & rdquor ;.
The director made his feature film debut with the adaptation of Jane Austen ‘Pride and Prejudice’ (2005), which earned him immediate recognition. He has always known how to bring a modern touch to period material and iconic stories from literature to give them new meaning, something he also demonstrated in ‘Atonement, beyond the passion’on the work of Ian McEwan, and later on ‘Anna Karenina’by Tolstoy, all three starring Keira Knightley. Could we consider ‘Cyrano’ as part of a tetralogy? “Yes, I think there is something that connects them. They are very personal adaptations in which I have tried to appeal to a certain degree of innocence. Can it be reached these days? People think that cynicism and irony are the monopoly of truth. They think they’re smarter that way. But I believe in emotional intelligence, which is something innate and much purer & rdquor;
Claiming the difference
Wright wanted to address this ‘Cyrano’ from the claim of difference. That is why, beyond all its device, the film talks about the connection between people. “We have experienced very hard times during the pandemic. A shared isolation experience. So I wanted to make a film about human bonding, how difficult it is to achieve and how important it is. But it was already an idea that haunted me before the covid health crisis, because when I saw Donald Trump or Boris Johnson putting up barriers between us, trying to separate us, it made me sick. They have dedicated themselves to spreading a message of hate, despising and stigmatizing citizens for their differences. That is why it seemed important to me to address this issue and make a film in which physical appearance did not matter”.
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Since he began his career, Joe Wright has been characterized by the elegance in the staging of each of his films, in which there is always sequence shots of an exquisite formal composition. Of course, in ‘Cyrano’ too. “I believe that sequence shots should always have a meaning. I use them to create an immersive experience. For example, one of the longest sequences is the duel on the stairs between Cyrano and ten men who he ends up defeating. If he had ridden her with many cuts, the character’s abilities would not be appreciated. So, I think the feeling of verisimilitude is much greater & rdquor ;.
For him, working with Peter Dinklage has been a gift. “He is extraordinary, an incredible professional with rare skills. And with Haley… you know [se refiere a que es su mujer]I know her very well and I know when she is uncomfortable and when she is comfortable. There’s something very tender and emotional about her that was a perfect fit for our Roxanne.’ She acknowledges that if the film had been released directly on a platform, she would have done it differently. His ‘Cyrano’ is to see in cinema. “It is proven that when you watch a movie surrounded by people, hearts synchronize. And what is more beautiful than that after having been apart for so long? & rdquor ;.