EL SEGUNDO HERALD December 23, 2021 Page 5
Entertainment City Council from front page
Film Review
‘Cyrano’ Will Move You With Its
Heart-Aching Music and Love Story
By Ryan Rojas, cinemacy.com
The new movie Cyrano (now playing in
select theaters) re-imagines the timeless tale
of a heartbreaking love triangle as an emotionally
a brooding baritone quality, the best song that
the film that stands above the rest is “Someone
to Say,” which is a highlight when sung by
Bennett, and then again later when reprised by
an admirable by Kelvin Harrison Jr.
In the lead role, Peter Dinklage is captivating
as Cyrano. While fans may see a similarity
to his quick-witted Tyrion from “Game of
Thrones,” the difference here is that Dinklage
Haley Bennett stars as Roxanne and Peter Dinklage as Cyrano in Joe Wright’s CYRANO A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo
credit: Peter Mountain © 2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.
gets to star, and as a helpless romantic.
Director Joe Wright is no stranger to period
pieces, but Cyrano marks his first musical. But
Wright knows how to make a sweeping love
story set in a grand period piece, so the result
here is excellent. If you want to be swept away
this holiday season, seek out the openhearted,
heart-aching, and life-affirming Cyrano.
2h 4m. ‘Cyrano’ is rated PG-13 for some strong
violence, thematic and suggestive material, and
brief language. Now playing in select theaters
before opening everywhere on December 31st. •
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affecting and sweeping musical that will
move audiences.
Cyrano de Bergerac is a man who’s as gifted
with words as he is with swords. Yet the insecurity
of his physical appearance keeps him
from sharing the secret love that he’s harbored
from the dear Roxanne all his life.
When Cyrano learns that Roxanne has fallen
in love at first sight with another man–Christian–
he agrees to write Christian’s love letters
to her using his penchant for words, resigned to
never sharing his own deeply felt love for her.
Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride
& Prejudice), Cyrano stars Peter Dinklage in
the title role, as well as Haley Bennett, Kelvin
Harrison Jr., and Ben Mendehlson.
While the story and these characters have been
told and re-told many times since its original
writing, this telling is based on the recent stage
musical that was adapted and directed by Erica
Schmidt (Dinklage’s wife). The film keeps the
stars of the stage production, with both Peter
Dinklage and Haley Bennett reprising the lead
roles of Cyrano and Roxanne.
Their chemistry together is so good that it
makes the love story resonate strongly. But
what they also bring are their singing voices,
which give life to heart-aching music that really
gets at the heart of the tragedy.
The songs–originally written for the stage,
with some new ones added for the screen–are
written by The National (music by Aaron &
Bryce Dessner and lyrics by Matt Berninger
& Carin Besser). And while the tone takes on
Ryan Rojas
Wishing you and yours a JOYOUS HOLIDAY SEASON full of LOVE AND HEALTH and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
is held in the city’s Joslyn Center to bring
“fellowship and Christmas cheer” to residents.
The dinner, started by an El Segundo resident,
has been held for 32 years.
Other call-outs went to the El Segundo
Chamber of Commerce for its recent 57th
Annual El Segundo Holiday Parade and the
volunteers who stage and put on Candy Cane
Lane. At the end of the meeting, Mayor Drew
Boyles read a request for “variances” by Mr.
S. Claus. The agenda item read:
“Approve request by Mr. S. Claus for a
waiver of the permits required for doing
business within the City of El Segundo as
follows: 1) The use of air rights and waiver
of the Santa Monica Radial 160 R procedure;
2) Grant a free business license for a nonprofit
organization; 3) Waiver of the Noise
Ordinance to permit the sound of bells; 4)
Waiver of the Trespass Ordinance including
dealing with trespassing animals; 5) Waiver of
the ordinance on Animal Regulations”
In a lighthearted moment, Mayor Boyles
also gave a public apology for holding up the
parade when he ran out of candy to hand out
and made a quick dash into a liquor store to
purchase more candy.
As had happened at its previous council meeting,
concerns were expressed about securing
enough playing fields for youth activities in
the city. Two residents addressed the council’s
decision to hammer out and pin down city
usage of the existing three fields on the Raytheon
campus versus an agreement that would
stipulate what land Raytheon would provide
for the city to develop a 7.5-acre public park, a
previous provision in a prior agreement between
the city and Raytheon. With the LA Chargers
development, that provision has been altered,
allowing Raytheon to sell needed acreage for
the LA Chargers project to come to fruition
and kick off with its January project timeline
and not move forward with the 7.5-acre public
park agreement as written.
Before his dissenting vote, said council
member Giroux, “I just want to make a couple
of clarifications. We obviously had an extensive
discussion about this a few weeks ago (at
Dec. 7 council meeting). And I’m not going
to rehash that entire thing. However, I want
there to be an understanding that the points
I brought up were that this was not a vote
against the Chargers. It was not a vote against
CDC (Continental Development Corporation,
Mar Ventures, it was not a vote against your
idea. The ‘No” from me was to allow this
agreement to go through without any commitment
whatsoever or timeline from Raytheon
as to when we would get that park, when it
would be allocated and when it would even
be discussed. And that’s why the ‘No’ came
up. And that still has not been rectified. So,
while I understand that the Memorandum of
Understanding about the current fields and field
space, and things like that, we worked that out.
Was that a good thing? Yes, it was, absolutely,
and I appreciate it. However, the reason why
that original development agreement was put
through, what we wanted to get out of that
was much-needed park space. And all I asked
was a plan for when that would go through.
For example, the original agreement was made
in 2016. Is it reasonable to expect that in 10
years from the beginning of the agreement,
that would be enough time to allocate the
space or figure out where it’s supposed to be?
Or give us an alternative? I don’t think that’s
unreasonable. And the very fact, and I’m sorry
I don’t remember the gentleman’s name that
was up here (representing Raytheon), came up
and just looked at me and said, ‘Yeah, no, we
don’t know.’ That’s a huge problem for me.
Our constituents expect certain things, OK.
You had two people in here (making a public
comment during the meeting). I think we had
about four or five emails that came through.
The truth is, I don’t think a lot of people
really are paying attention to this right now
because it’s back during the holiday season,
and nobody’s really around right now. So, I
don’t think this is the last conversation we
will have on this. We need some semblance
of a plan from Raytheon to make good on the
original agreement. And that’s why I voted
‘No.’ And that’s why I will still vote ‘No’
again this evening.”
In his final update, Public Works Director
Elias Sassoon reported that approximately
$3,758,000 in reimbursements due to the
Hyperion Plant emergency had been paid to
El Segundo residents. He noted that the reimbursement
is “a little over 85 percent” of the
submitted claims, with 1,882 residents having
been paid. He said that any remaining claims
in which documents are needed to support
reimbursement need to be submitted by Dec.
30, 2021. Anyone in need of information can
call Sassoon at (310) 524-2356.
Mayor Pro Tem Chris Pimentel reported that
the James Webb Telescope, which will travel
13.8 billion light-years into the past, will be
launched Christmas Eve morning. That date
has since been revised to early morning on
Christmas Day. He noted the role of Northrop
and its local base that factored heavily into
creating the telescope.•
“The holiday season is a perfect time to
reflect on our blessings and seek out ways
to make life better for those around us.”
– Anonymous