Molière (2007)

Director:

Laurent Tirard

Writers:

Laurent Tirard (scenario)
Grégoire Vigneron (scenario)

Release Date:

31 enero 2007 (Belgium)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

In 1658, playwright/actor Molière, having been given a theater in the capital by the King, is back in...

Plot Keywords:

Actor | 1640s | Playwright | Dancing | Theater

Awards:

2 wins & 5 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

A more fruitful experience for those intimate with his works

Cast

Romain Duris	...	Jean-Baptiste Poquelin
Fabrice Luchini	...	M. Jourdain
Laura Morante	...	Elmire Jourdain
Edouard Baer	...	Dorante
Ludivine Sagnier	...	Célimène
Fanny Valette	...	Henriette Jourdain
Gonzague Montuel	...	Valère
Gilian Petrovski	...	Thomas
Sophie-Charlotte Husson	...	Madeleine Béjart
Anne Suarez	...	Catherine de Brie
Annelise Hesme	...	Marquise du Parc
Luc Tremblais	...	Gros-René
Nicolas Vaude	...	Monsieur
Philippe Du Janerand	...	Bonnefoy
Isabelle Caubère	...	Toinette

También conocida como:

Aventuras amorosas del joven Molière, Las (Spain) [es]
Molière (Argentina) [es]

Duración:

France:120 min | Argentina:120 min

País:

France

Idioma:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Clasificación:

Malaysia:U | Argentina:13 | France:U | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Sweden:Btl | Netherlands:6 | Ireland:PG | Singapore:NC-16 | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Chateau de Versailles, Versailles, Yvelines, France

Company:

Fidélité Productions

Trivialidades:

The plot of "Moliere" was actually loosely based on two of his plays, ‘Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme’ and ‘Tartuffe’.

Quotes:

M. Jourdain: Your father said you studied law?
Thomas: Trade law, to be exact.
M. Jourdain: What a fine idea! I wanted a son to bequeath my business to.
Thomas: How is business?
M. Jourdain: I can't complain.
Thomas: You're wrong. Our laws are reprehensible. Business in France is impossible. But I have concrete ideas on ways to increase profits.
Dorante: Thomas, I fear this conversation could lead to boredom.
M. Jourdain: Not at all. Not at all. Please continue.
Thomas: For example, did you know you could save on labor costs by setting up shop in Spain, where people earn four times less?
[...]

Movie Connections:

References Molière (1978)

A more fruitful experience for those intimate with his works

Laurent Tirard's costume comedy "Molière" finds comparison with "Shakespeare in Love" rather easily, and perhaps most dauntingly, to its legendary subject's own durable narratives. But while there's not as much details missing from the 17th-century French playwright Moliere's (Romain Duris) life as there was in Shakespeare's, there's still ample room for a fanciful imagination and conjecture.

The window is small, for Tirard and co-writer Grégoire Vigneron to present the missing weeks of Molière's life after his brief imprisonment for not paying his debts, just before he embarked with his troupe on a 13-year tour of the French provinces before his triumphant return to the theatre scene in Paris. The driving point in this film, as it was in "Shakespeare in Love", is how great art tends to imitate life and how muses tend to stem from elaborate romances, which in this case is Molière's torrid affair with the wealthy Monsieur Jourdain's (Fabrice Luchini) wife Elmire (an enthralling Laura Morante).

Tirard's first salvo and indeed the one that sustains its premise throughout the end, is his understanding that a film about Molière has to be a farce, an important element that shapes his later and most important works when romance, gender politics and the moral bankruptcy of the French aristocracy become his staples. As a staunch tragedian, he gets an early education in the deviancy of the social class from the misguidedly smitten Jourdain who picks him out from his cell to help him perfect his self-written play to impress the blueblood snob, Célimene (Ludivine Sagnier). But "Molière", for all its charm and spirited performances does play rather loose in its opening hour, setting up the strands to be tangled in its second half. The modern transposition of the ringing hypocrisy of the rapacious upper class and eager capitalists ingratiating themselves into a privileged circle offers up its most scintillating prospects.

Nonetheless, flawed in his initial insistence of tragedy as the spirit of true art, it would seem that while Molière's life is a stage, he's not yet in on the act. Duris plays his character with an insinuating intelligence, cynically wearing a scowl on his face but a twinkle of hope in his eyes, all with a precise intensity that threatens to spill over. A hard sell for a light comedy bordering on fluff, but Molière plays the crucial role of the straight man in his own farce. There's no sombre reverence to Molière and his work, though the film hints at the genesis of his later plays through overtly familiar circumstances, making it a more fruitful experience for those intimate with his works.