One of my wife's favorite films is "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1950, directed by Michael Gordon and starring José Ferrer in the title role). After watching it again last week, she expressed an interest in seeing the production with Kevin Kline, staged in New York and specially directed for TV by Matthew Diamond (PBS's "Great Performances," 2008). I borrowed the DVD from our local library and we watched it.
Kline's performances is masterful, understated, cinematically effective, but quite incompatible with Jennifer Garner's highly theatrical performance as Roxane, the object of Cyrano's tragic love. We'd have preferred for hers to match his, rather than the reverse.But what I want to report is an item about Chris Sarandon, who very effectively plays the Comte de Guiche. Who was he, I wondered? Not the actor who played opposite Jane Fonda in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" No, that was Michael Sarrazin, with a fairly long list of films I'd likely mostly find UBOO.
No, listed among Chris Sarandon's many films is "Dog Day Afternoon" (1975), in which he played Sonny [the Al Pacino character]'s "wife" Leon Schermer (Pacino was robbing the bank to pay for Leon's sex-change operation)! We watched that film again a couple of years ago, and the character's pathos is graven on my memory. Sarandon was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.Chris Sarandon is about six months older than I. And no, he isn't Susan Sarandon's brother; rather, she acquired his last name when she married him (in 1967).
Footnote on movie incompatibility. I am fortunate that my wife and I share a love of film (and TV series). A friend reports that
I used to just check off all the movies on the Netflix website I could think of that I wanted to see so I always had something in the mail. Netflix is really easy to manage. I used to make sure I watched four or five movies a week. Nowadays we barely manage one a week mainly due to the fact that [my spouse] just isn't into films as much as I am.I'm sure it's tough not being compatible in terms of movies. My old college roommate who visited us last week told me that he, too, doesn't watch many movies (even though he'd like to), simply because his wife doesn't like to watch them. But, rather than watch them anyway, alone, he reads a book.
I can relate, actually. I don't "feel right" watching a movie when my wife doesn't want to watch it too. I'm fortunate that she almost always (but not quite always) is willing to at least start watching with me. If she decides to not continue watching, I don't feel so bad continuing myself, but starting to watch one she doesn't want to watch is another thing. I'm not sure why.
