Anne Brochet gives Roxane a welcome firmness in Cyrano de Bergerac. We value her emotional precision, but the film also exposes a limit: she cannot make its heroine as interesting as its wounded swordsman.
Fi1m perspective
Roxane has enough firmness in Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) to keep her from becoming merely a woman to be adored. Brochet gives us reason to take her seriously in Jean-Paul Rappeneau's verse romance, even while Gérard Depardieu draws most of our attention. That is a useful introduction to her acting: the apparent delicacy does not mean the character has nothing to insist upon. We value the care she takes, without finding Roxane as absorbing as the film needs her to be.
An early leading role in Claude Chabrol's Masques (1987) came before the breakthrough of Roxane, followed by Madeleine in Alain Corneau's All the Mornings of the World (1991). Corneau's period drama about musicians offered another of the fragile young women with whom she became associated. These literary and costume films suited her emotional precision, but they also encouraged the idea that she belonged in them and nowhere else. Her decision to seek contrasting roles was a sensible response to that narrowing of expectations.
Our reservation about Roxane is worth keeping separate from our enthusiasm for Cyrano de Bergerac itself. We grew impatient during parts of the courtship because Brochet's Roxane and Vincent Perez's Christian gave us less to be curious about than Cyrano. Christian is the simpler character, so the imbalance is not something Brochet could put right on her own. It would be unfair to demand that she match Depardieu throughout, but the romance needs us to care about more than one person.
Later parts included Solange Josse in The Hedgehog (2009), a contemporary supporting role, and Dina Traube in the historical drama The Round Up (2010). Her work in contemporary drama and comedy makes the early costume roles a poor guide to everything she has attempted. Begin with Cyrano de Bergerac, with the caveat that Brochet helps the romance without quite making us wish the film would spend longer with Roxane.
Biography
Anne Brochet is a French actress, director and writer. She was born on 22 November 1966 in Amiens and trained at the Cours Florent and the Conservatoire national supérieur d'art dramatique.
She is known for her role as Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) and as Madeleine in Tous les matins du monde (1991), for which she received the César Award for Best Supporting Actress. Other notable film credits include Masques (1987) and The Hedgehog (2009). Brochet has also appeared in television and worked extensively in theatre.
She lived with actor Gad Elmaleh from 1998 to 2002; they have a son, Noé. Brochet has written several novels, including one recounting their relationship.
