Film

Roxanne

Steve Martin wrote this one himself, adapting Cyrano de Bergerac into a warm, wordy rom-com set in a snowbound Pacific Northwest fire station. It trades duels for one-liners — the famous nose-insult scene is a script masterclass — but keeps the ache underneath the wit. Gentle, funny, unfashionably sincere about longing, and a genuinely lovely showcase for Martin as both writer and actor.

TMDb rating6.4

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The Truth About Cats & Dogs1996

The same Cyrano bones, gender-flipped: a witty radio host feeds lines to her gorgeous neighbour so she can win the man she loves without showing her face. Funny, tender, and unfairly overlooked.

But Janeane Garofalo and Uma Thurman are both terrific, but the '90s rom-com sheen and tidy resolution won't surprise anyone.

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Notting Hill1999

Hugh Grant does his own version of self-deprecating charm-as-armour, and the film has the same generous, crowd-pleasing warmth as Roxanne, just with more London rain than mountain air.

But It's a much bigger, glossier machine — movie stardom as plot device — with less interest in the mechanics of wit itself.

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L.A. Story1991no page yet

Steve Martin again, four years later, still obsessed with language and longing, this time filtering LA absurdity through a talking freeway sign instead of a fire station.

But It's stranger and more surreal — less a rom-com than a whimsical satire that happens to have a love story in it.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Cyrano de Bergerac1990

Roxanne is the comedy version of exactly this story. Watching the source material played as tragedy, in the original language, shows how much of the warmth in Martin's version is a deliberate, generous choice rather than an accident of the plot.

This is the real thing Roxanne is riffing on — Gérard Depardieu, in French, delivering Rostand's actual verse. Same nose, same balcony trick, but played entirely straight, and it's devastating.

But Nearly two and a half hours of subtitled 17th-century poetry with a tragic ending — none of Roxanne's lightness or comfort.

Cyrano de Bergerac poster

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