Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)

Morris Carnovsky: Le Bret

Photos 

Quotes 

• Cyrano de Bergerac : Very well, let the old fellow come now. He shall find me on my feet sword in hand.

  Roxane : Cyrano!

  Le Bret : He's delirious.

  Cyrano de Bergerac : I can see him now - he grins. He is looking at my nose, that skeleton. You there - who are you? A hundred against one, eh? I know them now, my ancient enemies...

  [Cyrano thrusts his sword at the empty air] 

  Cyrano de Bergerac : Falsehood! There! There! Prejudice! Compromise! Cowardice! What's that? Surrender? No! Never! Never!

  [He slashes his sword wildly] 

  Cyrano de Bergerac : Ah, you too, Vanity? I knew you would overthrow me in the end. No! I fight on! I fight on! I fight on!

• Le Bret : [Earlier, Cyrano had arranged to meet Roxanne at Ragueneau's, tomorrow at 7. Now he promises to escort Ragueneau home & protect him from armed ruffians hired by the Comte de Guiche]  Why are you risking your life for this pastry cook?

  Cyrano de Bergerac : First, because this pastry cook is a friend of mine. Second, because this pastry cook is also a poet. And most important, if anything should happen to this pastry cook, tomorrow morning at 7, his shop will be closed.

• Cyrano de Bergerac : Think of me./ Me whom the plainest woman would despise./ Me with this nose of mine that marches on/ Before me by a quarter of an hour./Whom should I love? Why of course it must be/ The woman in the world most beautiful.

  Le Bret : Most beautiful?

  Cyrano de Bergerac : In these eyes of mine, beyond compare.

  Le Bret : Wait! Your cousin - Roxane!

  Cyrano de Bergerac : Yes. Roxane.

• Le Bret : Look at me, twenty years a captain, while others, who know only how to deploy their forces at court, now dangle a marshal's baton.

  Cyrano de Bergerac : [smiling]  Hmm... , well, someday I will avenge you too.

• Cyrano de Bergerac : Whom I love? Think a moment. Think of me. Me, whom the plainest woman would despise. Me, with this nose of mine, that marches on before me by a quarter of an hour. Whom shall I love? Why, of course, it must be the woman in the world most beautiful.

  Le Bret : Most beautiful?

  Cyrano de Bergerac : In these eyes of mine, beyond compare.

  Le Bret : Wait, your cousin, Roxane.

  Cyrano de Bergerac : Yes, Roxane.

  Le Bret : Well, why not? If you love her, tell her so.

  Cyrano de Bergerac : My old friend, look at me and tell me how much hope remains for me with this protuberance? Well, I have no more illusions. Now and then, I may grow tender, walking alone in the blue cool of evening through some garden fresh with flowers after the benediction of the rain. My poor, big devil of a nose inhales April, and I follow with my eyes where some boy with a girl upon his arm, passes a patch of silver. And I feel somehow, I wish I had a woman too, walking with me under the moon and holding my arm and smiling. And then I dream and I forget. And then I see the shadow of my profile on the wall.

  Le Bret : My friend.

  Cyrano de Bergerac : My friend, I have my bitter days knowing myself so ugly, so alone.

  Le Bret : Ah, but your wit, your courage - why that poor child who just now offered you your dinner. You saw it. Her eyes did not avoid you.

  Cyrano de Bergerac : [In a state of awe and shock]  That is true.

• Le Bret : Alone, yes, but why go about making enemies?