Alceste à bicyclette

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.

A once great actor, Serge Tanneur (Fabrice Luchini), has retired from the limelight, in the process becoming a misanthrope not unlike Molière's famous character. For the past three years he has lived in solitude on the Île de Ré, spending his time cycling through the windswept landscape. He rejects society so much that he refuses to connect his septic tank to the main sewage pipe network. As a result, his house stinks. (Later, after the movie has been watched, this is revealed to have been a harbinger of the tragedy to come, but at this point of the movie it is comedic.) Fellow actor Gauthier Valence (Lambert Wilson), whose career is flying high, is planning a production of Molière's play Le Misanthrope and wants to offer Serge, first the second role, then, after Serge's insistence that he would only play the title role, the title role in rotation.

Instead of committing, Serge suggests they rehearse together for the week, and Gauthier changes his plans and withdraws from his appointments and obligations for the better part of the week. Almost secluded, the two rehearse the play rotating the title role among them. It is never clear whether Serge will accept, or whether he has really become a misanthrope who relishes at exposing other peoples' real or just made up weaknesses. The scenes where they rehearse together are magnificent ---high quality theater-in-a-movie---, the scenery is superb. The viewer is captivated, and begins to relax enjoying the star actors' theatrical performances. The film is replete with satire to the emptiness of modernity, for example when the young beautiful girl who is currently a rising porn actress (with her family's and boyfriend's approval) is revealed to have real Molière actress potential. For the greater part, it looks and feels like a cultivated bitter-sweet comedy of manners, not unlike Molière's original. But gradually then suddenly, the comedy of manners morphs into a full-blown psychological drama, as Serge is revealed to be less of Molière's charming character and more of a modern-day psychotic intent on destructing the conventions and indeed the basic human empathy that together hold the social fabric. Gauthier is also revealed to have faults, as do all of us (quote Molière), but, unlike Serge and like Molière's character, he gradually acknowledges them (if he had not already done from the beginning), and this makes him human and in the end likable. It helps that the actor's real person naturally emits a subtle melancholic charm.

Alceste à bicyclette pays tribute to France's greatest playwright. It pays tribute to the beauty of 17th century French language (the fact that at this writing there are no French subtitles available is a tribute to the inability of France's cultural bureaucracy to direct a trifle of funds where they might have the greatest effect). And it is a great movie in its own right. It may be acknowledged to have been a piece célèbre of a new cinematic genre, namely a comedy of manners gradually morphing into a psychological drama. Superb scenario. Magnificent performances by Fabrice Luchini and Lambert Wilson: this is a movie based not on special effects but on theatrical acting (content and notion being conveyed by diction) and cinematic acting (content and notion being conveyed by subtle facial expressions). One gets a feeling why the Comédie Française has maintained such a hold on European high culture for so long a time. Blessed be France's cinematic industry for churning out gems like that year after year.

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.

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.

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."