This is a remake of Cyrano de Bergerac, one of the most celebrated plays of the French theater, written by Edmond Rostand. Instead of being set in 17th century France, “Cyrano” has been changed to “Charlie”, a fire chief in a small town in Washington. Roxanne rents a house for the summer to look at comets and Charlie quickly falls for her. Charlie is intelligent, funny, and sensitive, but all his fine qualities are unfortunately overshadowed by his very large nose (“Excuse me, it that your nose or did a bus park on your face?”). Charlie’s friend, Chris, on the other hand, is quite attractive, but superficial and awkward with words, especially around women (he has a tendency to throw up a lot). Both men are enthralled with Roxanne, but she, in a shallow but predictable move, shows interest in the handsome Chris. Chris is tongue-tied around her — everything that comes out of his mouth is either vulgar or indecipherable. So he asks Charlie for help. Charlie, inspired, writes 3 love letters a day to Roxanne, unbeknownst to Chris. Charlie’s eloquent letters work, because Roxanne falls in love with Chris. But Chris can’t meet Roxanne’s expectations in person and he soon runs off with a waitress who is “pretty cute, too”. —IMDb
Fred Schepisi AO (born 26 December 1939) is an Australian film director and screenwriter. His credits include: Last Orders, Roxanne, Plenty, and Six Degrees of Separation.
Schepisi was born Frederic Alan Schepisi in Melbourne, Victoria, the son of fruit dealer Frederic Thomas Schepisi and Loretto Ellen (née Hare). He began his career in advertising and directed both commercials and documentaries before helming his first feature film, The Devil’s Playground, in 1976.
Schepisi won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Direction and the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Screenplay for both The Devil’s Playground and Evil Angels (released in the US as A Cry in the Dark).
In 1991, his film The Russia House was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 41st Berlin International Film Festival.
In 2005 Schepisi directed and co-produced the HBO miniseries Empire Falls, for which he was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries… read more