If you haven't seen Cyrano, you might want to. I found a profound reflective moment immersing myself into this movie during a time of great chaos, war and hate around me. The world continues to rage on fire....It was a refreshing drink of water and in the process I found myself a bit as as result.
It isn't for everyone, that is for sure. But, it can be for anyone that has felt misunderstood, alone, tortured, afraid, and brashly foolish for ever letting their heart live on their sleeve.
My intent is not to critique the performances, the plot or direction, rather to comment on the impact it had on my heart. It hit hard and it hurt very good. I was unapologetically moved. I found the emotions emanating effortlessly as I let myself be drawn in. An impossible love story that has a way of worming its way into you and causes you to empathize with each character equally as you try and figure out how you really feel about the whole thing.
The music surprised me... I was not expecting songs, but ended up loving them the most. They triggered the most emotion. They were the catalyst for the masterfully crafted messages of the movie. They were different for sure....They weren't quite Broadway and they weren't quite rock ballads....but something definitely in between. They worked perfectly for me. I hope they do for you too.
It starts with this theme:
My guess is you have, whether or not you would use this specific metaphor to describe your particular desire is another thing, but I can say I have felt that way. It can be a terrifying thing to feel and an exhilarating emotion as well. Terrifying because it makes you so vulnerable to hope for something so desperately because the fall is so deep and cold if that want is unrealized. The question that is posed to Cyrano is the same for us... "are we willing to bare our souls at such a great risk?"
"Have you have ever loved someone..... madly"
The second theme reminds us what this feels like through the eyes of each character in this mad ironic love triangle. What are you and I willing to do if we really feel this way? Hopefully not to such tragic consequences as portrayed in this story. It was difficult for me not to think about my own efforts when I have experiences similar emotions.
The movie helps clarify what true love is and a bit of what it is not. There have been times for me when my actions were defined by desperate pursuit, and other times when it seemed so counterintuitive and impossible, yet the best and most "mad" action of love was to show great restraint, stop and withhold.
" I might lose everything if I...... lose the pain"(Link Overcome)
Have you ever believed something so much, especially if you found out later that it was a lie, but you grasped onto it tight fisted for years because it became a place of comfort despite the pain it caused. The idea of letting go of resentment, hate, jealously or pain is not so easy even though you might think that it is expressly because of the pain you would quickly want to rid yourself of it, but you find you can't. I think about the One Ring in the LOTR books. Isildur and Frodo both couldn't let go of the ring even though the only thing they had to do was open their hand let the ring drop. It is so emblematic of how we can't let go of what might be most painful to us. We let the pain become so part of us that we find room and we make it comfortable somehow. Are we too prideful to realize we need help in the end?
Cyrano cannot fathom the idea that Roxanne would every truly accept him for who he really is. He can't give it up. In his mind, if he does he loses everything. It leads to a tragic ending that seems so senseless. Is it possible that we want to keep the wrong things so close to our vests as well?
"Every morning I am overcome" (Link Your Name)
I love how this theme is placed and interpreted in the story, It reaches out to the viewer and gently persuades them to internalize and examine where they are today and where they need to be tomorrow.
Each character in this story has much to overcome in order to become something different in the end. What actually happens if we do let go? If we forgive? If we offer up hurtful feelings to each other or to heaven? Usually transformation happens. We change, we become something different. It is the great promise of anyone who really believes in God.
"Look at what I have become"
Does that not speak to you? It does to me..... I don't have to carry this weight by myself or for so long. The reminder of what I can become lifted my spirit. Redemption is a remarkable miracle that I don't understand but while words fail me to describe it, I know the sweetness when I have allowed myself to receive it.
They don't become what they could have in this story, but they get beautifully close to it..... to what might have been. So tragic on one hand, but inspiring and hopeful on the other because with a small change of heart, adopting a few degrees of a different perspective, and some simple actions a wildly different outcome is possible, the best one ever.
Just when I think I am not holding on to anything unhelpful, I find that I am ..... Maybe I will feel inspired enough to let go, to be willing to lose everything....... Because if I keep holding on to that dear friend I have made a home for, I might actually lose everything if I don't.....
