Jason E. Luba 2008-06-06
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I began my "love affair" with Cyrano de Bergerac back in high school, a long time ago. The first video production I ever saw was Gerard Depardieu's and I loved it! I watched that video tape over and over. Naturally I obtained a copy of Cyrano (Five stars also) on DVD the moment it came out. BUT late one night on Turner Classic Movies, I saw "Cyrano de Bergerac" with Jose Ferrer! I was intrigued because I had never seen an American movie production. It was fantastic to behold and I was so thankful that I was paying the Cable company for the DVR rental fee. LOL!
Cyrano de Bergerac with Jose Ferrer and Mala Powers is by far one of the best films ever made. True, it doesn't always stay word for word to the play but then again certain interpolations are made in the Depardieu production which in no way minimizes the five star quality of a movie that one has to sit through while watching the action and reading the sub-titles at the same time. (Oh, that I had taken French instead of German in High School and College!)
Here's the catch and READ THIS WELL: DO NOT BUY THIS PARTICULAR COPY BY ALPHA VIDEO UNLESS THERE ARE NO OTHER CHOICES. They use a terrible master that starts off by cutting off the first 15+ seconds of credits, including Jose' Ferrer's name! No joke. I purchased an Amazon Bargain buy Signet classics copy of Cyrano de Bergerac (the play) for $4.98 and it turned out to have the DVD for free!!! The quality it far superior. The DVD is produced by the Chamberlain brothers and it also has a five minute introduction that you can watch or skip!
The transfer by Alpha was a very poorly done job onto DVD. Please let me emphasize this to you. The sound quality is shoddy. Again, let me repeat that a free DVD with a Signet Classic (they are selling used copies last time I checked here on Amazon still) is better. The video quality is inconsistent and actually skips in places. One might attribute this to fifties style shooting but I viewed the same scene on the other DVD and it very clear that it is because Alpha's master is in such bad shape. Yes, you can hear and see everything but not the way they were intended to be heard or seen! Alpha ruins Cyrano for the first time viewer or the ardent devotee such as myself.
I have tried to not wax rhapsodic about Cyrano because so many have done it so well before me. I love this play. He reminds me of me. I actually had my own Roxanne of a different name and Cyrano always reminds me of my own weaknesses as well as need for overcoming them. Yes, he's the hero but he's a hero that for all his strength is so incredibly human that we can't help but empathize with him.
I give this product three stars as an average of the five star production of Cyrano de Bergerac and the one star investment by alpha in choice of poor transfer material, bad sound and video artifacts and the fact that some of the movie (the credits) are missing. And I think this is being overly fair to Alpha! The movie brings the bad production up but you can find better production companies that want you to enjoy this wonderful film.
In conclusion, I would only buy this Alpha Video production as a last resort or if you have a sound system that can filter hissing and other audio imperfections out because you will have to turn the volume up to be able to hear the wonderful dialogue properly. Losing a few seconds of credits may not seem like much but it shows how little the company cares for being true to the makers of the movie or our viewing pleasure through the best quality possible, in my opinion. Yes, the price is right but as they say, you get what you pay for. I would recommend trying to find the play/DVD combo by Signet classics, the Cyrano/son of Monte Cristo DVD that comes so highly recommended (mine will be here in the next few days) or the Image entertainment one. Jose Ferrer deserved the Oscar for this role that he won just as he also won the Tony a few years before for the same role, and I felt that Mala Powers was fantastic as well. The movie is excellent but there are better iterations out there of the DVD, even if you have to pay a little bit more.
