Cyrano De Bergerac

This 1990 'swashbuckler' is a staple of the arthouse circuit; presumably it is in that parade so as to satisfy those who don't really like art-house cinema at all, but only want to pretent to. This is not a good film.
It is basically a not particularly interesting piece of Hollywood. Character development is poor, there is an utter lack of continuity in regard to narrative viewpoint. This means that plot changes jump up on us; we don't really identify, for no apparent reason Cyrano is almost kept to arm's length at times. This is probably an attempt to create mystery, but Cyrano is not a mysterious character. Announcing that you love someone is different from this being represented to the audience.
The unnecessary and uninteresting battle scenes are shot with a bit of cash but not much imagination. A few waves of the camera to convey constant movement don't hide rather passive and dull direction. This is the kind of well-made mis-en-scene the new wave were trying to fight against, and good on them.
There are of course some consolations, this isn't utterly terrible, just a poor film. Depardieu chucks himself about, even if the nose does hide the performance. Some of the period clothes are interesting enough, if adding nothing to character. And credit for the script, the attempt to at least do it in a new way of poesy. In fact, the script is excellent and interesting.
So, with the eyes closed, this film (apart from the uninteresting pacing and characterisation) might be reasonable. With open eyes, however, we have a rather boring film that chucks some action and romance to know great effect. The themes are hammered on, with an embarrasing and clunky supplement of Moliere at the end, along with gushing music, which only shows the ultimate failure of the film to engender the emotional impact it should. A poor film, deeply mediocre.