In 1644, Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, dit Molière, is a twenty-two year old actor whose talent for tragedy is obviously outweighed by his talent for comedy. However, despite his undeniably bad acting, the future founder of the Comédie Française stubbornly continues to stage tragedies. One day, after being imprisoned by impatient creditors, he disappears. Thus begins a
mysterious ten-year period unaccounted for in experts' records of Molière’s life.
French film director Laurent Tirard’s scenario imagines what may have transpired during those ten years and suggests that the experiences lived during those years fed the playwright’s genius to develop the psychological depth of the characters for which he is so well known.
The film resonates with Molière’s language as it situates some of his wittiest and most powerful retorts in the dialogue of everyday life. It sings and singes on the lips of the talented cast, beginning with Romain Duris as the young Molière. Fabio Luchini incarnates to perfection Monsieur Jourdain, a phantasmagorical bourgeois gentilhomme. Towards the end of the movie, Luchini is nothing short of spectacular in his finessing of a scene where the usually bumbling, too-eager-to-impress-nobility Jourdain drops his charade to express himself frankly and with such unexpected truthful wit that the Marquise (played by Ludovine Sagnier) is left uncharacteristically speechless. The scene is a key moment in the film in its depiction of the age-old French binary opposition of être and paraître (being over appearance). Edouard Baer and Laura Morante give equally notable performances: Baer as the opportunistic, back-stabbing but ever elegant marquis and Morante as Jourdain’s wife and Molière’s insightful, provocative muse.
Like Molière’s plays – intelligent, amusing music for the eyes, ears and mind – Tirard’s Molière puts its finger on an unchanging humanity. The cleverly imagined period piece is in perfect harmony with today’s values… listen up for the zinger on commerce with China….
Two web sites, in French, about the film:
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