Gerard Depardieu as Cyrano de Bergerac, the renowned bulbous snozzled warrior.

Classic French masterpiece of, initially, unspoken, and then, finally, on death's door, croaked, love.

"NO NO NO! That nose looks good! The original Cyrano's nose was supposed to look more like a duckbilled platypus! Damn the director and damn any other snozzle damned person responsible for this nice-nosed monstrosity."

"A poetry filled wonder of a movie. I can hardly wait for the interactive DVD version to find out what the hell they are all talking about."

"Not since the last time I saw Diane on Cheers have I heard such dialogue. A credible alternative to talking all posh."

"Gerard Depardieu you do not play the English speaking bumbling fool in this movie, were you miscast?"

Cyrano de Bergerac falls in love with his cousin (Roxane) - he does not tell her of his feelings as he is ugly.

A good looking fighter comes along who falls for Roxane, and she finds him attractive. It is a love based on physical attraction and the belief that he is a poet (which he is not). She loves poetry but the good looking guy cannot write it.

Cyrano helps him woo her in a number of classic scenes - a memorable one is where Cyrano talks on behalf of the goodlooker, hidden by trees, and Roxane is on a balcony not able to see who is talking. The poetry woos her, and the good looking guy gets her. The boys go off to war. During the war, Cyrano keeps up correspondence with her writing it as the other guy, but the other guy gets killed - he has told Roxane everything.

Cyrano has made many enemies - inevitably they attack, fatally wounding him with a blow (a dropped beam) to the head. Knowing that he is dying, he goes to his cousin and she tells him she knows what has been going on. He dies.

Oh, joy of joys. Oh, wonder of wonders. Whilst the production is perfectly sumptuous and the acting fine, it is the dialogue that is the star of the piece. My High School French came back to help me no end, although one's eyes kept straying, like a bad puppy, to the subtitles perched at the bottom of the screen.

Bravo! Bravo! and Bravo! again. Bravo indeed for the rest of the year. Unfortunately, Depardieu does not look as ugly as perhaps he should, but that is the only thing that disappoints...

The best foreign language movie of the last century or my name is not Pierre de Balfour un Bullockol III.

A truly wonderful movie. If you are OK with subtitles, and like a Shakespeare type experience on the intelligence scale of things, then this is for you.