Cyrano: Classics Re-Visited by Peter Dinklage and Joe Wright

We have discovered this with pride and superstition. He then attacked Anna Karenina. Today Joe Wright will visit another great literary classic with Sirano. And he does it in songs. Because he adapts less to the original work of Edmond Rostand than to his stage and music version, signed by Erika Schmidt and the orchestrated group The National.

Character translator on stage, Peter Dinklage (Erica Schmidt’s companion) will resume his role in the film, as will his partner Haley Bennett. And the actor, best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, returns with us on this adventure in the video, while Joe Wright talks about his attack on the musical, which surprised us no more.

AlloCiné: When you see “Anna Karenin” or scenes from “Pan” and “Dark Hours”, it ‘s not surprising that you’re directing a musical. When did you want to?
Joe Wright : I have wanted to do this for a long time and that is probably why you saw natural progress. I think it came back to me when I saw Larry von Trier dancing in the dark. I told myself that it was really interesting that one day I wanted to try to stage a musical and find another way to create something different in this registry.

Would you say that your previous films were, to some extent, musicals without songs?
Valid. Anna Karenina was conceived as a ballet and music has always played an important role in the process of my films. I often ask the composer to write music before filming, and then play on the set so that the actors can follow his rhythm. So a lot of time has passed since my move to the musical was built.

Music has always played an important role in the process of my films

What did you like about Sirano’s approach that made you want to get carried away with this adaptation?
I have always loved history. After Gerard Depardieu’s film, I think I saw what I saw when I was a fat and dirty teenager: I knew myself and I heard in this film a tribute to the original text by Edmond Rostan, who was able to speak. The human condition.

I always felt close to this story, but I could never find a reason to adapt it until I saw Peter Dinklage in the role of Cyrano. The idea that a similar person played the character without this big nose made the story even more authentic and personal, giving it an instant feel like I had never seen before.

I like how you use scenes and space in your movies. Does this involve creating controversial kits too early so you can determine how you develop in them?
An interesting question. I work closely with my artistic director Sarah Greenwood. It was already – oh, my! – We have been working together for 25 years. One of the first things we do is start scouting places to feel space and location. And then I plan the scenes. Even when I write scripts, I plan them so that they fit the locations. They are specific to the exact site because I imagine they are in reaction. A place can give me ideas.

Let me give you an example from the balcony scene: we usually have Roxanne upstairs and Cyrano and Christian downstairs. But when I found the yard where we were going to shoot, I realized that Peter and Kelvin Could stand on either side of an arched wall in the middle and be seen from afar. So that opened the door to another, completely different way of the scene. I could have Peter up close and Hale Using a background diopter . For me, this exciting discovery changed everything in my approach.

“Cyrano” was shot during the pandemic: did you have to deal with many changes and even revise the direction of certain scenes?
absolutely ! Great logistical challenges were overcome to overcome the problems related to Kovid. One solution, in the case of the theater stage – to be held in an initially closed theater – was to build a stage in the open air, in a style closer to that of 18th-century theaters. Thus, air was constantly circulating.

My mother, who is a prop and doll, made 160 leather masks in the style of Commedia dell’arte, covering her face and having a long apricot nose to ensure that the rest of the faces remained covered and protected. Time.

Is it more difficult to stage a musical with only one version of it like this?
No, it’s even more liberating because you have no sense in comparing. If I had to shoot a new cabaret or a West Side story, I would always have other films in mind. So I was able to bring news to this film and it was stimulating because there was some freedom in all of this.

What changes did you make compared to the stage version?
When you are on stage, you are limited. So we needed to get out of this and move the movie into space. But I also wanted to not lose sight of the closeness of the story because it, to me, touches on the importance and need for human connection and the inability to connect. This is a movie about love and connection, so it needed an intimate style and that’s what we tried.

I do not know if we can talk about reviving the musical, but this year we had “Annette”, “West Side Story”, “Where We Are Coming” or “Tick, Tick… ​​Boom!”, Jacques. Audiard is currently preparing one…
really ?

Yes. He talked about a musical that will be shot in Latin America.
Wow! I can not wait to see her. I love his work, he is one of my heroes.

The best musicals are the ones that allow you to escape, to reflect clearly on us

How do you explain the revival of musical comedy in cinema?

Maybe people are looking for an escape. Because the best musicals are the ones that allow us to escape, and at the same time reflect very clearly on us, on our psyche, on our spiritual condition.

It seems that musicals are the purest and most cinematic genre, but also the most challenging for a director. Do you confirm this now that you have made one?
It’s hard to make every movie. This is difficult because some work and some do not. I am happy to say that I feel it works, but finding the right tone for a musical is hard.

Interview with Maximilian Pierrett in Paris on December 8, 2021 – Edit: ??

“Sirano” will be released in cinemas from March 30: