The best way to describe the filmic farce Moliere is perhaps Moliere Dans L’Amour – such is its debt to Shakespeare In Love. Like that Oscar winner, this explains the evolution of the French playwright’s most famous work, Tartuffe, as being the product of his own romantic entanglements.
The dialogue is rich, nimble and comic and complimented by sumptuous settings.
When the film opens, Moliere has returned to Paris. Over the past 13 years, he’s gained a reputation as a comic actor by roaming the countryside with his troupe. But now as he sits down to write his own serious, tragic play, we return to his younger life.
The bankrupt Moliere is hired by a scheming merchant named Monsieur Jordain because he wants to learn acting to woo the beautiful Marquise Celemine. Forced to pose as a religious tutor, Moliere insinuates himself into Jordain’s household, where he promptly falls for the neglected Madame Jordain. From there, we’re treated to miscommunications, deceptions and double crosses, all styled after the playwright’s own work.
The dialogue is rich, nimble and comic. And like Shakespeare in Love, the script also lightly probes the nature of tragedy and comedy and the creative pretension that says the serious is always superior to the silly.
Romain Duris is terrific as the young Moliere finding his own voice. It’s a performance of frustration and restraint, which makes him bursting into full passionate flight all the more exciting. Also excellent are Ludivine Sagnier as Celemine, the sarcastic mistress of her salon, and Laura Morante as the romantically revitalised Madame Jordain.
The villains of the piece also shine. Edouard Baer’s is slimy fun as Dorante, the louche aristocrat who manipulates Jourdain constantly. And Fabrice Luchini makes Monsieur Jourdain a wonderfully gormless but slightly sympathetic would-be Renaissance Man.
As good as the performances are, the man behind the camera should also take a bow because writer-director Laurent Tirard’s movie really is sumptuous and sophisticated.
Moliere’s a real gift for those who enjoy elegant, witty cinema.
