I picked this film up at the school library because I recognised the title as a famous French play and the main actor, Gerard Depardieu. On the back of the DVD cover there are several extremely flattering quotes such as: "one of the most successful French films ever made"  and "a cinematic triumph" but unfortunately I have to disagree with those. Certainly, it was a good film, but I don't think it was great.

Cyrano de Bergerac revolves around the main character, unspurpisingly, Cyrano, and his love for his cousin (it wasn't creepy in those days), Roxane. The problem is, Roxane is really beautiful and Cyrano has an unnaturally large nose which he is very ashamed of. He is afraid to confess his feelings to Roxane because of his nose and so he remains silent. Then, a handsome young man, Christian, arrives on the scene and Roxane falls for him. Christian wishes to woo Roxane and although he's got the good looks, he does not have the poetic flair needed to write the love letters Roxane so desires and so Cyrano offers to write them for him.
Th acting in this film is brilliant. The main characters are played by Gerard Depardieu, Anne Brochet and Vincent Perez, all of whom are very talented. The acting is real and didn't waver for even a moment. The story is heartbreaking and Gerard Depardieu does a marvellous job of transitioning between grouchy soldier to love poet. This is a really great love story which is quite easy to get wrong but these guys do it perfectly. The plot itself is also really good and though I can't say whether or not it is true to the play, the script is really well written. The costumes and general atmosphere of the film seem to fit in nicely with the setting of the seventeenth century and nothing looked fake which I'm quite surprised at. Even Cyrano's nose is perfectly fitted as had I not known better, I would've thought that it was Depardieu's real nose!
The only thing that was actually wrong with this film was its length. The running time for this film is approximately two hours and twenty minutes and I'm certain that the story could've been told just as well in a much shorter time. I've already sat through two hours of Asterix and Obelix today (see review here) and so I wasn't really in the mood to sit through another extremely long and drawn out film. There are several pieces of the film that could've been cut or shortened, I noticed that the film's beginning took around twenty five minutes which was simply too long. It's not that I don't have a very good concentration span because I've sat through plenty of two to three hour films before, it's just not a lot actually happened in this film and it was fairly predictable. You could argue that it had to be that long because it's an adaption of the play, but I'm sure there were moments of fighting or scenic shots that could've been slightly shortened.
All in all this is a good film, but not a great one, as the running time let it down. It ticks all the other boxes though: good acting, check; good plot, check; swashbuckling action, check. I would recommend this to fans of the three musketeers and those sort of dramas and even good old romantic people because this is a beautiful story.

Asterix et Obelix contre Cesar (Asterix and Obelix Take on Cesar).

Asterix and Obelix seems to be something that every French person has either read or watched (probably both) so I thought it was about time I had a watch myself. This was the first on-screen adaption of the famous French comic and it was reportedly the most expensive French Film of the 20th century to produce.
For those of you that have read the comics, this film takes elements from Asterix the Gaul, Asterix and the Soothsayer, Asterix and the Goths, Asterix the Legionary and Asterix the Gladiator. The story is set in 50 B.C. and Asterix and Obelix are happily living in a village in Gaul where the townsfolk are turned into mighty soldiers by a magic potion brewed by the Druids. When Cesar and his Roman troops are travelling through Gaul to get to the English Channel, they discover the secret of this potion and take the Druid leader who knows the formula captive. Asterix and Obelix set off to rescue the Druid leader and face a number of challenging situations.
I expected this movie to be a really lighthearted film that would be full of funny gimmicks bordering on slapstick style comedy and that's exactly what it was. The film started out great with vibrant sounds, colours and magnificent scenic views. The acting was as I had expected and was all very over the top with ridiculous accents and costumes. Whilst I was really engaged in the movie for the first half an hour or so, I soon became quite bored with it as it was simply too long. This film lasts, in total, around one hour and forty five minutes which is too long for myself to be engaged in the novelty and hilarity of this sort of film. The CGI effects of this film are absolutely awful at times, though extremely funny, so I'm really surprised that this was the most expensive French-language film production of the twentieth century. Perhaps the effects were considered very good at the time, I'm not sure, but certainly for the modern viewer who is used to seeing films such as Avatar and Inception, this just wasn't very impressive (though this ad
ded to the hilarity). In many ways I'm glad that the CGI wasn't perfect because it matched very well with the general ridiculous atmosphere of the film.
The actors were all excellent. With this sort of film it's quite easy to go overboard and be a bit too silly, but I think these actors carried it off perfectly. Gerard Depardieu seems to be in just about every French film in existence and the vast range that his acting ability covers is quite impressive. I was slightly confused by the Italian accents in this film as no subtitles, plus funny French equals a very confused me. I didn't always understand what the charatcters were saying because of the lack of subtitles, but it didn't really make much difference to be honest because the acting is pretty self explanatory.
You just can't help but smile whilst watching this film; however, I don't think I would recommend it simply because it is far too long and I can imagine most people would get bored very quickly. There are five more Asterix and Obelix films that have been produced since 1999 including one that was released this year. I haven't seen any of them but I imagine that they're a lot better than this debut film and so if you're interested in this sort of genre or this film series, I'd start with the latest ones. (Also the new one stars Edouard Baer as Asterix and he's rather dishy in my opinion so check it out!)