Paseando con Molière

Gauthier Valence is a successful actor. He plays in a prime time soap opera which earns him enough glory to be recognized in the streets and markets and enough money to allow him to put on stage the most ambitious production any French actor dreams about – Moliere's Le Misanthtrope. Of course he sees himself in the lead role of Alceste, but for the second role of the play, Philinte, he wants to get the participation of his friend, Serge Tanneur, who retired a few years before in a remote corner of France, on the shores of the Atlantic. When traveling to obtain his friend's (and maybe rival) participation in the production he will find not only that Serge believes that he is the one fit for the lead role, but also that in order to enroll him he will need to engage in a game of rehearsals, first for one day, then for the rest of the week. Did Serge really give up acting, or is he playing a game of power with his old friend and rival, who apparently has so different conceptions about life and acting? Who is the playwright, who is the director, who is the actor in this play?

The series of rehearsals that the two actors play occupy much and the best part of the film. I am just sorry that I did not know how important a role the text of Moliere plays in this film, I would have read it before, as the feelings of the two characters are often expressed by the two actors using the replicas of the play and through the way they act alternatively the roles of Alceste and Philinte. It is amazing how fascinating are the scenes where we see the two men working together and confronting each other. Their role swapping is at the same time a fight for control and a way of marking the differences in their approaches towards acting and towards life, it defines the relation with the other characters (yes, there are several women in the story and one of them plays a relatively small but key role – cherchez la femme), and the complex relations of respect, rivalry and friendship between the two of them.

'Alceste a bicyclette' (English title – Cycling with Moliere) directed by Philippe Le Guay is the second excellent French film that I see in the time of a few weeks (the other one was the Allen-esque 'Dans la maison'), and the lead actor (as Serge Taneur) is again Fabrice Luchini who is also a co-author of the script. His partner is Lambert Wilson whose figure is maybe recognizable from a number of Hollywood productions, but who really gets here a great role in the tradition of the French theater and cinema. There is some good camera work by Jean-Claude Larrieu using the fabulous beaches at the Atlantic and the endless roads with the heroes riding bicycles, but most of the action takes place between the walls of the decrepit and overpriced house where the two actors rehearse Moliere. It may be the dream of any French actor to play Moliere or a play turning around Moliere's texts. It is the dream of any lover of French cinema and theater to see such a film. But better come prepared. Read Le Misanthrope first!

This is an intelligent film, a rather sour, grown-up comedy that captures something of the misanthropic theme of the Molière play that has a large role in it. But you really don't need to be familiar with "The Misanthrope" (1666) to enjoy this film. It does help, however, if you love good acting, are a bit of a francophile, and are prone to occasional bouts of contempt for your fellow human beings.

Once you begin to note the key differences in the temperaments of these two old friends, the scope of the film expands. It's about the continued relevance of classic drama thanks to unchanging human nature. It's about the art of acting itself, the struggle to nail one's character through a peculiar mixture of repetition and imagination. It's about the problem of casting roles, about why actors, however experienced and ambitious they might be, just cannot play certain parts credibly. It's about how popular entertainers are rewarded handsomely for allowing their audience to avoid confronting the flaws in human nature. And it's about the line between success and failure in life and in love, and how, Hollywood notwithstanding, having real talent and genuine feeling is no guarantee of a happy outcome.

The setting on the windswept Atlantic island (Ile de Ré) is used to great effect as a way of concentrating the concealed hostility between the two main characters. And there is a lovely homage to a scene in François Truffaut's most famous film that should please film buffs. This is a literate film and one which Truffaut himself would surely have admired.

Philippe Le Guay has cut his film to fit the talent of Fabrice Luchini in his 2014 Bicycling with Moliere. Luchini is hardly a household name in the US, but he is a welcome, much appreciated and feted actor in Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. His distinctive voice is not unknown in Africa, Latin America and Asia. To give the American English speakers an idea of his talent, Luchini measures, as a classical and cinema actor, up to John Gielgud. Serge Tanneur (Luchini), after a long career in theatre, withdraws to splendid solitude in an island off the French coast. Gauthier Valence (Lambert Wilson) comes to the island to woo his friend Serge back to the stage in Moliére's Le Misanthrope, a play that Tanneur has often played during his 30-year career.

Valence suggests that Tanneur play as against type the role of Philint, and he takes the plum role of Alceste, the Misanthrope.

Serge at first rebuffs his friends, but Valance, a star in a successful soap opera, offers a tempting off of alternating roles, a novel idea that would guarantee the play's box-office success.

And so the stage is set as the two friends personify the modern Alceste (Luchini) and Philint (Wilson) in their personal relationship.

And so, Serge puts Valance through his paces whilst bicycling through the high- and byways of the island.

Like Philint, Valence cares for Alceste, his acerbic friend Tanneur. As the film rolls on, it is obvious to everyone but Valence, he is not up to the central role of Le Misanthrope. Still Serge walks him through his paces, correcting his pronunciation to fit the Alexandrine metre the play is written, as well as its complexities of the play. And yet, Valence muddles the script.

In a closing scene, we see Luchini wearing the 16-century dress of Alceste peddling towards a cocktail party to confront Philinth whom he feels has betrayed him.

And he parts company with Valance by refusing to play no role but that of Alceste., thereby underscoring he is a modern Alceste who not only in a vein of irony and bitter-comic relief pointing out flaws in the human character, but also shuts out any reconciliation, not a resolution to the weaknesses of man.

As the camera zooms in on Luchini sitting alone of a beach, he recites with a touch of pathos,

"My hate is general, I detest all men; Some because they are wicked and do evil, Others because they tolerate the wicked, Refusing them the active vigorous scorn Which vice should stimulate in virtuous minds."

French director Philippe Le Guay's Alceste à Bicyclette / Bicycling with Molière is based on actor Fabrice Luchini's original idea. The film is all about actors, their homes, moods, relationships and worlds. The scenario is written in such a manner that this film is also able to discuss the concepts of "good actor" versus "bad actor". They make viewers discover that all actors are absolutely conscious of their image. There is one major thing which all viewers can easily identify in the film. It is related to some actors and their essential need of personal space especially due to their being popular on television. Apart from actors and acting, Bicycling with Molière throws light on how the presence of a woman impacts male bonding. In many ways, it can be construed as this film's minor yet useful subplot. It gains considerable weight due to the benign presence of Italian actress Maya Sensa. Any discussion about this film would not make much sense unless the importance of actor Fabrice Luchini in French cinema is discussed. He has become an important personality of French cultural life. Apart from films, he is seen on TV talk shows reading excerpts from literary as well as philosophical works. He is the best reason to watch this film as good/poor actor Fabrice Luchini takes his revenge on bad/rich actor Lambert Wilson. Before concluding it can be said that actors riding bicycles is a good sign of people in show business coming out of their comfort zones. This statement is as close in reality as stating that in the field of acting there are no friends as nobody would like to miss the opportunity of playing an important role.

This is a first-rate movie. I've seen it four or five times by now - I am using it in a class - and each time I watch it, I marvel anew at the talent of the two lead actors, two stars of today's French cinema, Lambert Wilson and Fabrice Lucchini, and the quality of the script.

One could summarize it by saying that it is the story of two actors who rehearse for a touring production of Molière's masterpiece, The Misanthrope. One, Serge, played by Lucchini, has become bitter in his lonely retirement. The other, Gauthier, is a financial and romantic success, but wants to accomplish something worthy of his artistic merits as well. In the course of rehearsing the play, both find that the words Molière gave to his misanthropic protagonist, Alceste, allow them to express their own growing hatred of the world around them.

If you don't know the play, I don't know how much of an effect this movie will make. Since the play is one of the classics of French theater, the director and producer could assume that many in their French audience would remember the play from their school days, the way at least some Americans are able to remember something about Hamlet from high school, and so understand what the two male leads are doing. If, because you don't know Molière's play, you can't do that, I don't know what you will get out of this very fine film.