Enlarge image
Actors Bennett and Dinklage in »Cyrano«: Here, even those who can hardly sing are allowed to sing
Photo Credit: Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures
In the cinema:
»Cyrano«
The story of a man who doesn't look very attractive at first glance, who, out of love for a woman, becomes another man's prompter - this is indestructible material that lends itself to new adaptations and interpretations again and again.
The title character, who suffers from a big nose in Edmond Rostand's 1897 play, is shorter than all the adults around him in Joe Wright's latest film version and is played by "Game of Thrones" star Peter Dinklage.
Christian, his rival for the heart of the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett), is played by African American Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Based on a stage musical by Dinklage's wife Erica Schmidt, »Cyrano« is a celebration of diversity.
Everything is a little different here than you've been used to, almost anything seems possible.
Even actors who can barely sing are allowed to sing quite a bit.
It's not always nice for the ears, but it doesn't spoil the mood.
In the first scenes of his film, director Wright strives for as much speed and momentum as possible.
At every opportunity, they warble with all their might, battles of words and swords alternate in quick succession.
But one soon senses that neither the staging nor the songs have the freshness and originality that would be necessary to get something really surprising out of the story.
When Cyrano and Christian have to go to war side by side, gloom settles over the cheerfulness.
But a song number with a number of soldiers, just before they go into battle and thus to certain death, turns awkward and maudlin.
The tragedy at the end of »Cyrano« seems just as artificial as the good mood at the beginning.
Lars Olav Beier
»Cyrano«, Great Britain/Canada/USA 2021. Director: Joe Wright.
Screenplay: Erica Schmidt.
With Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr. 124 minutes.
In the cinema:
»Batman«
US director Matt Reeves said in a recent interview that he was concerned that the detective story he was telling in his new Batman film might be too complex for superhero movie audiences.
Oh well.
On the one hand, the independent »Joker« already proved in 2019 that even more radical comic adaptations can become blockbusters, on the other hand Reeves takes almost three hours for his film »The Batman« – more than enough for a world-class investigator like Bruce Wayne, but also for the audience to solve the riddles of the serial killer "Riddler" in order to solve the criminal entanglements of the eternally rain-soaked and dark megacity Gotham.
Even if »The Batman« is the first in what has now become a long line of films about the »Dark Knight« in bat clothing that was actually staged as a noir crime thriller, what is more spectacular about it is the almost complete deconstruction of its hero.
Robert Pattinson, best known as the romantically tormented vampire in the Twilight saga, plays young Bruce Wayne as the pale victim of severe childhood trauma.
He's still unclear about his motives: "I'm vengeance," he says on his first appearance: I'm vengeance.
Is this masked vigilante a genius
albeit whimsical profiler in the service of good and enlightenment – or just as murderous a psychotic as his dark mirror image »Riddler« (Paul Dano)?
Reeves walks this fine line in his film with references to horror thrillers like »Seven« over abysses.
more on the subject
»The Batman« with Robert Pattinson: The New Sorrows of the Young Leather MouseBy Andreas Borcholte
Pattinson does a good job as a fragile emo Batman, while an exciting new Catwoman, Zoë Kravitz, enters the DC universe of menacing, brooding males.
Luckily, cinematographer Greig Fraser (»Dune«) and production designer James Chinlund created stunning images and tableaus in blood red and midnight black for this superhero horror film.
As a viewer, you can savor them while the dramaturgy, which is a bit too epic, gets sluggish again.
Andrew Borcholte
»The Batman«, USA 2022. Director: Matt Reeves.
Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano.
176 minutes.
In the cinema:
»The Card Counter«
Gambling has seldom looked so much like work as it does in Paul Schrader's film The Card Counter.
The hero, who calls himself William Tell, doesn't hope for the big coup, but instead relies on many small wins and makes a living from it.
Surrounded by people struggling with their nerves, he proceeds with calculation.
While in prison, he learned to memorize which cards have been played and which have not.
This gives him an advantage.
Schrader and his great leading actor Oscar Isaac turn the material into a compelling character study at times and show the casino, often glorified in many films, as a rather unglamorous yet exciting place.
It's fun to watch Tell rip off his opponents with coolness and a sense of style.
And how he finally approaches a woman (Tiffany Haddish) who apparently finds him attractive precisely because of his controlled nature and who wants to win him over to highly paid poker tournaments.
Unfortunately, Schrader revisits Tell's past in flashbacks.
He once fought in Iraq and took part in torture in Abu Ghraib prison.
Some scenes, in which one senses that Tell will never leave these experiences behind, are haunting.
But the 75-year-old Schrader, who wrote the screenplay for "Taxi Driver" (1976) and directed masterpieces such as "American Gigolo" (1980), cannot convincingly combine these two narrative levels.
For him, »The Card Counter« almost falls into two different films.
Lars Olav Beier
»The Card Counter«, USA 2021. Written and directed by Paul Schrader.
Starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe.
112 minutes.