1 May 2008
Moliere
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Review
by Julie Rigg
Not so much a biopic of the famous French playwright but a fiction, in fact a farce -- Moliere style -- about a young playwright who is rescued from bankruptcy by a rich patron who wants to give him a makeover: teach him to act, dance, et cetera, and seduce a wealthy widow.
Fabrice Luchini plays the wealthy man, Laura Morante the widow, and Romain Duris, the current heart throb of French cinema plays, the playwright who is smuggled into the rich man's house as a priest (a la Tartuffe).
In other words, Laurent Tirard, the writer director of this film, is playing with some of the creations of Moliere in his farces. It's a romp, this film, and there are some wonderfully funny scenes, most of them stolen by Fabrice Luchini. But I don't think swashbuckler and farce is Romain Duris's best thing. I had difficulties with him as the lead character, and with the romance. It's fun, but falls a little short.
Director: Laurent Tirard
Cast: Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante, Ludivine Sagnier, Edouard Baer
Producer: Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonier
Script: Laurent Tirard, Grégoire Vigneron
Cinematographer: Gilles Henry
Editor: Valérie Deseine
Music: Frederic Talgorn
Running time: 120
Australian distributor: Hopscotch
Language: French
Classification: PG
