The Bergerac Test

My favorite movie of all-time is the 1990 adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac starring Gérard Depardieu. From the moment my best friend sat me down and showed me the film, it went straight to the top. I became obsessed with the original play and its various translations, the fantastic Steve Martin version “Roxanne,” and even saw a brilliant rendition in New York with Peter Dinklage playing Cyrano. For those who haven’t seen any of these, a very brief synopsis: the titular Cyrano is everything you’d love about a man, and everything you’d want to be, save for what he perceives to be his fatal flaw: his enormous nose! No matter how much wit, skill, grace, physical prowess, and panache he has, he feels ugly, and this cripples him. Especially when it comes to love. And Cyrano is madly, deeply, profoundly in love with his cousin, Roxane. He never lets Roxane know this, because losing her as a friend and confidant would be the death of him. So he stifles this love and channels it into his…