How fast can character development be accomplished without stereotypes? See Jose Ferrer in Cyrano de Bergerac, and George C Scott in Patton.
I mostly watch just the long opening scene of Cyrano, which has two sensational pieces. The first is the listing of insults, all done in one cut. Compare this with Steve Martin's listing of insults in ROXANNE that had, as I counted, 37 cuts. How bad was that? Just this one piece set Jose Ferrer as top tier, later proved to me in SHIP OF FOOLS. The camera movement and staging of the "monologue of insults" demonstrates the skill of filmmakers of that era.
The second piece of the opening scene is the fencing. I think it is the best and most exciting fencing scene in all of film. Fencing skills were a big asset to actors as Basil Rathbone's parts attest to. I don't know what actor played Ferrer's fencing opponent in this scene, but he was good at swordplay. Perhaps he was a fencer first and an actor second.
Had Steve Martin been allowed to do a one-cutter, he also would have been sensational. What a good idea ROXANNE was, but what a bad execution!
I mostly watch just the long opening scene of Cyrano, which has two sensational pieces. The first is the listing of insults, all done in one cut. Compare this with Steve Martin's listing of insults in ROXANNE that had, as I counted, 37 cuts. How bad was that? Just this one piece set Jose Ferrer as top tier, later proved to me in SHIP OF FOOLS. The camera movement and staging of the "monologue of insults" demonstrates the skill of filmmakers of that era.
The second piece of the opening scene is the fencing. I think it is the best and most exciting fencing scene in all of film. Fencing skills were a big asset to actors as Basil Rathbone's parts attest to. I don't know what actor played Ferrer's fencing opponent in this scene, but he was good at swordplay. Perhaps he was a fencer first and an actor second.
Had Steve Martin been allowed to do a one-cutter, he also would have been sensational. What a good idea ROXANNE was, but what a bad execution!