The Most Beautiful Girl in the World

Cyril is seventeen; clever, funny and well liked. He has one problem: his nose is very large and he is mocked for it at school. A girl called Roxy arrives. Cyril falls for her but cannot speak. His friend Rick is good looking and Roxy likes him. But Rick has nothing to say. Cyril makes a proposal: he will write the messages, prepare the conversations, and Rick will only say them. The arrangement works. Roxy falls in love with the messages, and the person writing them is nowhere to be seen. Aron Lehmann directs. Aaron Hilmer plays Cyril, Luna Wedler plays Roxy and Damian Hardung plays Rick. It is a German production. The narrative rests on Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac; the story is moved into a present day school and messages replace letters. The film drew wide interest among young audiences in Germany and did well at the box office. It uses rap; Cyril's words are also delivered as songs, answering to the verse structure of the play. The matter it treats is the difference between voice and body; Roxy does not know who she is in love with. The film does not show Cyril as pitiable; he is confident and his humour is sharp. Its limit is predictability; for anyone who knows the source the outcome is clear from the start. Another limit is register; the school sections are conventional and the supporting characters thinly written. Who it is for: viewers who like comedy about the young and adaptations of classics. Who it is not for: it is predictable, the shape familiar, and the ending too tidy.