A new adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s classic play Cyrano De Bergerac arrives in cinemas this week, with Peter Dinklage in the starring role and a number of original songs written for the production by The National.
Aside from the performances and the music, one of the most immediately striking things about Cyrano is the stunning locations that have been used to bring the film to life – from wonderful theatres to incredible mountains.
And so we’ve collated all the information you need about those locations – including some exclusive quotes from star Haley Bennett – below.
Read on for everything you need to know about Cyrano’s locations.
Where was Cyrano filmed?
The film was shot entirely on location in the Sicilian city Noto – which production designer Sarah Greenwood happened to accidentally stumble upon while she was working on another film.
“I was in Sicily scouting for a different job and we went to Noto for its cannoli, which had come recommended,” she is quoted as saying in the production notes for the film. “The cannoli was wonderful, and here was this amazing baroque place.
“In Noto, when the sun sets, you’ve got this absolutely stunning pink hue. It’s as if you’re in a fantasy town, yet it’s completely real.”
“We all fell in love with Sicily and its rawness, its splendour,” added set decorator Katie Spencer. “Because of the global pandemic, the streets were emptied and I felt like we were in the Italy of years ago.”
So with Noto decided on, it was time to find the right places in the city – with unit production manager Guido Cerasuolo explaining that director Joe Wright had tasked the team with finding “extraordinary places that offered something.”
“Within a week, we had found maybe 90 percent of the locations that you will see in the movie,” Cerasuolo said. “The people of Noto, and its mayor, gave us all the necessary flexibility.”
Among the locations selected WAS the 18th-century Palazzo Castelluccio, which has been restored by its current owner, filmmaker Jean-Louis Remilleux, and which Cerasuolo said gave “the right combination of home and palace.”
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Meanwhile, although Noto also has an 18th-century theatre, Wright decided against filming here since he believed it “felt too constraining” and so a new theatre set was built, which also made things more manageable in terms of adhering to pandemic guidelines.
And this ended up being Roxanne actor Haley Bennett’s favourite set in the whole film. “I love the theatre that they built,” she told RadioTimes.com in an exclusive interview. “It was built for practical reasons because we shot in the middle of the pandemic and that was the scene that had the most extras. So Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer built this incredible Baroque theatre outdoors, so there was a lot of air ventilation and that we wouldn’t be all smushed and cramped.”
Speaking of the locations more generally, she added: “Being able to shoot in these incredible locations that have been unchanged for centuries is incredible. You really get the atmosphere and the romance and the beauty of this Baroque town of Noto. It really allowed us to immerse ourselves in this kind of period, and the magic of it all.”
Among the other landmarks to feature in the film are the nearly 300-year-old San Francesco cathedral, and Castello Maniace, the landmark fort in the nearby town of Siracusa which was used as the garrison where soldiers of the King’s Guard bunk and train.
And of course, the climatic war sequence is shot on Mount Etna – which caused some problems when terrible rain and snow meant the set had to be moved further down the slope.
“We had such torrential rain that we had to move the unit to our weather- cover location, which was down in the valley,” explained producer Guy Heeley. “Then it froze so much — with a windchill of minus 15 degrees — that we couldn’t access the road, so we had to get special trucks in to get the unit out. Sets were washed away, sets were covered in snow!”
Cyrano is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25th February 2022. Looking for something to watch? Visit our Film hub for more news, interviews and features, or check out our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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