Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Director of Cyrano de Bergerac and The Horseman on the Roof, Dies at 94

Jean-Paul Rappeneau built a career around visual splendor. The French director, whose films included Cyrano de Bergerac, The Castle of My Mother and The Horseman on the Roof, has died at 94.

His favorite phrase for describing the cinema he loved was “There has to be visual splendor.” He wanted scale, open spaces where light could move, natural landscapes, houses that seemed endless and characters who never stopped moving.

That vision stood apart from the New Wave. Rappeneau remained faithful instead to the thrills of his youth as a reader and moviegoer: Jules Verne’s journeys, Alexandre Dumas’ sword fights and Errol Flynn bounding through The Adventures of Robin Hood. A small camera and a street corner were not enough for a filmmaker drawn to spectacle.

He also valued stars and elite technicians. Rappeneau made only eight films over five decades, but each left its mark on French cinema. From The Castle of My Mother to Families, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Horseman on the Roof, his movies carried an elegant, colorful and openly romantic signature.

His body of work was described as prestigious, exceptionally joyful and elegant. The films’ movement, landscapes and visual ambition formed the defining language of a director who preferred cinematic grandeur to restraint.

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There has to be visual splendor.