UNDER THE SUN OF SATAN (1987)

Gerard Depardieu is a devout country priest who spends his time talking to his imaginary master, doubting himself and beating the crap out of himself with chains.  If a normal person did this they'd be thrown in the nuthouse, but somehow he made a career out of it.  One evening, while walking through a field, Satan comes up and starts talking shit to him.  Next thing you know Depardieu confronts a teenage girl who has two lovers...well, that is until she murdered one of them!  Stuff happens and Depardieu continues to talk to his invisible friend a lot.

As dull as that sounds, I actually liked this movie.  It's beautifully photographed and Depardieu's performance is quite demanding since the majority of his lines are just him standing there talking to no one, but he does an extremely believable job portraying a highly conflicted individual struggling constantly (with every thought and deed) with his relationship with God.

As a man of zero faith I have no belief in God, Satan, Zeus, Nanabozho, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or any other deity, so I'm probably not the best person to review this film, but despite my lack of faith I was still moved by Gerard's tortured performance and that of Sandrine Bonnaire as the troubled girl.  Recommended.

CYRANO DE BERGERAC (1990)

[Update 11/16/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Cyrano de Bergerac is a master sword fighter and poet who would gladly fight 100 men, but recoils in fear at the mere thought of expressing his secret love for the beautiful Roxane. Why? Because he has a giant nose and figures she will reject his love because he's so ugly. Cyrano is madly in love with Roxane so when she confides in him that she's attracted to a new soldier in Cyrano's military unit he wants to crush the guy, but instead he takes the cadet under his wing. Then when he sees the guy means well but an idiot.  Cyrano writes endless love letters to Roxane for him. Naturally, Roxane falls wildly in love with the young man, but how long and how far will this charade go?

CYRANO DE BERGERAC is a nice mixture of romance and action and even a little humor. The 137 minute run time flies by in a swirl of love filled wooing and sword swinging asskickery. The main attraction though is the portrayal of Cyrano by Gerard Depardieu.  He's a true pleasure to watch here. Every mannerism and gesture he does expresses something. Cyrano is a very loud and vibrant character, but yet Gerard still manages to capture the internal torment that Cyrano is going through and express it to the audience without us even realizing it.

The look of the film is also beautiful with impressive costumes and sets. My biggest complaint is the story wasn't as dark or heartbreaking as I had hoped. Also, I wasn't impressed by the Roxane character. I've never read the original story, but in this movie she didn't seem very well fleshed out. She was kinda a ditzy simpleton actually. That's just my opinion. Still it's a great movie, I just wish the Roxane character had given me more of a reason to be deserving of Cyrano's delicate prose. If you like romantic films then check it out!