(2007; French) As with Shakespeare, little of the particulars of Moliére's life is known in comparison with his literary output. In 1658 Jean-Baptiste Poquelin aka Moliére (Romain Duris) and his troupe of players return to Paris after performing farces (especially those of Pierre Corneille) for thirteen years in the provinces. Provided with a royal stage for his comedies in the Louvre, the Théâtre du Petit-Bourbon, by the king's brother, Moliére decides to compose his own works for himself and his actors.

Drawing upon earlier autobiographical experiences - or so director Laurent Tirard and his co-screenwriter Grégoire Vigneron imagine for this period costume comedy with sumptuous scenery, loosely based on the satires, Le Tartuffe and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (though these were not written until 1664 and 1671, respectively, nor were they performed in the Petit-Bourbon as the film suggests) - Moliére invents comedies that explore the complexities of the soul.

Thirteen years before, after a impromptu scene of slapstick with his creditors, Moliére finds himself in jail for unpaid debts and then released at the behest of Monsieur Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini), a man of wealth and ambition (but lacking natural gifts of aptitude or felicity in the arts) who offers the actor a contract to instruct him in the art of acting, in order to charm a beautiful young widow, Célimène (Ludivine Sagnier), with his own play, fulfilled when he receives "indispensible signs of the Marquise's esteem."

Part of the arrangement requires Moliére not to reveal is actual purpose to M. Jourdain's attractive wife Elmire (Laura Morante); he enters the household disguised as a priest named Tartuffe as a tutor of morals for the younger daughter. Elmire is hardly fooled by the ruse, wanting the so-called priest dismissed.

Performing like "a puppet in a strange adventure," after Moliére honestly evaluates M. Jourdain's play as deserving of the toilet and then when challenged to do better pens his own substitution on the spot, which receives his benefactor's derision as worse than shit, Elmire, finding the pages on the floor and reading them, exclaims: "Magnificent!"

She is told that the words are those of a young playwright, from whom she receives a message (Moliére's composition) proposing a meeting in secret. As they prepare for the assignation, they separately speak to their mirrors in a colloquy - "great sensibility" and "my heart which spoke" - each anticipates having face-to-face.

Meanwhile, Dorante (Edouard Baer), a nobleman of the court and companion of the king, arrives to ask for an additional loan of money from M. Jourdain in his capacity as go-between with Célimène; he takes a gift of a diamond ring and presents it as if it were his own to distinguish himself from her "yapping admirers."

Additionally, Henriette (Fanny Valette), the older daughter, is in love with Valère (Gonzague Montuel), her young music instructor, which M. Jourdain will not abide; Dorante recommends his son Thomas (Gilian Petrovski), which would confer upon Henriette the title of countess.

With the deceit exposed in a scene of ironic twists - originally intended to reveal Tartuffe's illicit advances upon her, while her husband listened in hiding, as evidence for dismissal - Elmire and Moliére become lovers who also debate the merits of farce versus theater. Elmire expresses the view that his pranks (imitating her husband and Dorante) are more touching than any staged tragedy she's seen.

Managing to quietly compromise M. Jourdain's deceiver, Moliére forces the duplicitous Dorante to arrange a meeting with Célimène. However, when Elmire attempts to buy off Dorante's son's marriage to Henriette with a large sum of money to which she hasn't access, she appeals to Moliére, who concocts another drama that turns into farce.

Following M. Jourdain's personal performance of his play before Célimène (her motto being: a beautiful woman without intelligence is like a hook without a bait) and her guests, Dorante spins their apparent reproachful reactions to convince M. Jourdain of its having made a great impression upon their ears and eyes. Unwilling to take someone else's word of worthiness, Moliére conceives of a scheme to see into Célimène's mind.

Into her salon Moliére makes a grand entrance with humoresques, upon which she expresses glee since they are "so dreadfully starved for entertainment," contrasting his titillating diversions with the grotesquery recently on display from M. Jourdain: "Imagine a farmyard rooster, disguised as a pheasant, sputtering rhymes in my face a child of eight would no longer dare read. You see my predicament. Then the oaf gazes stupidly at me hoping to be loved in return. As if I could possibly be interested in every uncouth merchant and farmer who aspires to become a marquis."

Humiliated and cuckolded, M. Jourdain, seeing no other way forward than to have Henriette wed Thomas, once again becomes a participating spectator within another of Moliére's inspirations, this time a classical comedy ending in a happy marriage.

When he returns to his acting troupe, including Madeleine Béjart (Sophie-Charlotte Husson), I had to wonder if she is supposed to be Armande Béjart, whom Moliére married in 1662, which, according to The Reader's Encyclopedia: "proved unhappy and probably provided the embittering experience that led to the writing of one of Moliére's masterpieces, Le Misanthrope."

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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