A Groundbreaking Talking Picture

Though Julia’s brother Avery did not arrive in Paris until nine months after she had attended Cyrano de Bergerac, he may have been able to watch a brief portion of the play. They visited the city’s magnificent Exposition Universelle, which featured a short film of the famed actor Constant Coquelin playing Cyrano. This moving picture—a technological marvel at the time—featured both color (hand-tinted onto the film) and sound (recorded on a wax cylinder, then synced to the movie).

We can still watch this groundbreaking clip, taken from Act One. Cyrano is confronted by his rival, Viscount Valvert (who is willing to marry Cyrano’s secret love, Roxane, so that the powerful Count de Guiche can make her his mistress). When Valvert insults Cyrano’s nose, Cyrano declares his intention to create a poem while dueling with him. Displaying his brilliant wit and skilled swordsmanship, Cyrano ends each stanza with the same line: “Qu’à la fin de l’envoi, je touche!” (“Then, as I end the refrain, thrust home!”). At the close of the final verse, Cyrano stabs Valvert.