MOLIÈRE

Film: Molière
Molière is a 1978 French drama film directed by Ariane Mnouchkine.

PLOT: ★★★★
MUSIC: ★★★★★
PERFORMANCE: ★★★★★
CINEMATOGRAPHY: ★★★★★

LA COMÉDIE-FRANÇAISE — MOLIÈRE

Review by Dr Usman Latif Khawaja

JEAN-BAPTISTE POQUELIN — MOLIÈRE

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, pseudonym Molière, is the best playwright France has ever produced. He was born in 1622 and died in 1673 while performing in one of his plays. He was born rich, studied to be a lawyer, and then gave up everything to become a writer-actor.

He is the French equivalent of Shakespeare, though he wrote satires and farces instead of tragedies, some in prose and some in verse, but they are all as effective as tragedy, if not more so.

His work mainly consists of 12 long plays and six short ballet-plays and pastorals. Since he is not widely known, director Laurent Tirard decided to make a movie about him to acquaint modern audiences with this French genius and what inspired him to write his comic farces.

The French actor Romain Duris is cast perfectly as Molière, who is thrown into prison as he is unable to pay his debts after his earlier efforts as a playwright fail in 1644. He is rescued by Monsieur Jourdain [Fabrice Luchini], a wealthy businessman, but there is a snag: he will help him win over the charms of a beautiful widowed noblewoman, Climène [Ludivine Sagnier], who is being courted by M. Jourdain.

But his beautiful wife, Madame Jourdain [Laura Morante], is unaware of her husband's affair. Molière has to do this while he is disguised as a priest living in Jourdain's country villa. While he coaches M. Jourdain, he falls genuinely in love with his charming and beautiful wife, played by an actress of great charm, Laura Morante, who I bet is g...