Pedalando com Molière

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."

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.

A nice story about two friends, acting and relationships. It's a mature theme, with some clichés thrown in of course (like these young kids, no respect for art and stuff like that). But it's about a story that may relate more to some than others. The friendship displayed is always on thin ice, especially when it comes to the theme of love, where people are easily divided.

But it's also about guilt, about humans and behavior as it is about vanity and wanting to have things (greed) that others might get. It's about a lot of things and it juggles them well. It's tough to feel for one more than the other. But it's nicely told, if you are into that thing.

Hence, the original title is 'Alceste on the bike', everyone with some French education is supposed to have seen and/or read the Misanthrope and get the allusion. Btw. Watching it in the original is fine, with the genuine voices of two actors brillant enough to play actors.

Once more, get a copy of Molière's Misanthrope first, or you will not get the finework of the script, intertwining modern times with the theatre piece played. The roles of the misanthropic, disdainfully bitter Alceste and his friend Philinte oscillate, do they? A successful TV actor meets his better (?), I won't say more but: read Molière first, not afterwards.

Is it better to be right or happy or within the in-group or ... find your own answer.

A popular TV actor with presumed artistic aspirations, the character of Gauthier Valence, travels to an island off the west coast of France to solicit a former acting companion, the reclusive, ill-tempered character of Serge Tanneur, to join him in a stage production of Moliere's The Misanthrope. Tanneur is retired, and says he hates acting and actors, but eventually agrees to at least rehearse with Valence for four days. Based on a daily coin flip, they will alternate the roles of Alceste (the "Misanthrope" who detests the hypocrisies of social life and rebukes men's dishonesty toward each other) and Philinte (who argues for a necessary role in social life of courtesies and half-truths). One might simplify things by labeling Alceste as the idealist and Philinte as the realist. At the end of the brief rehearsals Tanneur will decide whether he will participate in the production, and if he does the two actors have agreed (are they companions? rivals?) to rotate the parts on a daily basis.

To me, the fascinating part of this film was how the two characters submerged / transformed their interaction and emerging rivalry into the two characters of Moliere's play and the echoed interaction of the play's characters onto their own relationship. As they rehearsed, it seemed like Moliere's lines were reflecting aspects of their own interrelationship, which to me was clever screen writing. We also see during these stimulating two-person readings, a subtle evolution of their acting relationship from one of apparent agreement and collaboration to one of ego tests and indirect humiliations. Does the play come off? I believe you can enjoy this film without being familiar with The Misanthrope. I hadn't seen it performed in 30 years, and yet I could appreciate the juxtaposition of Moliere's play and the interaction of these two actors.