22-year-old JEAN-BAPTISTE POQUELIN, also
known as MOLIÈRE, is not yet the writer that history
recognizes as the father & true master of comic satire,
author of THE MISANTHROPE AND TARTUFFE, and a dramatist to
rank alongside Shakespeare & Sophocles. Far from it.
His ILLUSTRIOUS THEATRE TROUPE, founded the previous year,
is bankrupt. Hounded by creditors, Molière is thrown into
jail, released, and then swiftly imprisoned again. When the
jailors finally let him go, he disappears. The combined
efforts of historians have unearthed no trace of him before
his reappearance, several months later, when his troupe
begins touring the provinces - a tour that will last for
thirteen years, and culminate in Molière's triumphant return
to Paris in 1658.
Molière, we discover, has been released from prison by a
wealthy bourgeois,
MONSIEUR JOURDAIN, who settled the young actor's debts on
the understanding that he will teach him the craft of the
stage. Hungry for recognition, Jourdain is infatuated with
the lovely but poisonous CÉLIMENE, whose salon gathers
together suitors & great wits.
But the affair must remain secret, kept at all costs from
Jourdain's wife,
ELMIRE, a wonderful woman with whom Molière himself falls
headlong in
love. Unfortunately for him, Jourdain has presented Molière
as
MONSIEUR TARTUFFE, an austere private tutor, to justify his
presence.
Elmire has nothing but the harshest words for this
holier-than-thou figure
who has invaded her home. Trapped in this untenable
situation, Molière will
experience all manner of events that will open his eyes and
his mind, both to
life itself and to his work as an artist. It is from the
heart of this tale, and
from his passion for Elmire, that Molière the great
dramatist is born.
©2007 Sony Pictures Classics. All rights reserved.
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