This is a movie not to miss. I give it only 9 stars out of 10 because I'm not keen on such a long flashback as is used here. I would have preferred a straight chronological order - mostly I find flashbacks tedious unless they are very short. However, I expect the French, knowing Moliere's plays well, may be happy with this flashback approach as they could do what I mostly couldn't, pick out all the allusions to specific Moliere plays.
In France the word comedy is used as it used to be used in England in Shakespeare's time - it didn't mean a knockabout farce or a barrel of laughs, but a story which follows certain guidelines for entertainment and likely to include some comic sequences. This is an excellent comedy with both laughs and sharper moments.
Particular accolades to Fabrice Lucchini for another fine performance because he is a favourite of mine, but also accolades to all the actors, the director, the camera people, everyone.
I shall certainly be looking up Moliere's plays to discover some of the sources for myself. I've only ever seen two of them and one was an amateur performance but without subtitles and I at 15 didn't have good enough French to follow it much! Time Moliere was better known in England, clearly, just as Feydeau's real farces were introduced to us years ago.
In France the word comedy is used as it used to be used in England in Shakespeare's time - it didn't mean a knockabout farce or a barrel of laughs, but a story which follows certain guidelines for entertainment and likely to include some comic sequences. This is an excellent comedy with both laughs and sharper moments.
Particular accolades to Fabrice Lucchini for another fine performance because he is a favourite of mine, but also accolades to all the actors, the director, the camera people, everyone.
I shall certainly be looking up Moliere's plays to discover some of the sources for myself. I've only ever seen two of them and one was an amateur performance but without subtitles and I at 15 didn't have good enough French to follow it much! Time Moliere was better known in England, clearly, just as Feydeau's real farces were introduced to us years ago.