Laurent Tirard Movies
In 1645, the French playwright and actor Jean-Baptiste Poquelin -- better known as Molière -- mysteriously disappeared for several weeks, and this lavish comedy drama imagines a scenario that could explain what may have happened to him. At this time, Molière (Romain Duris) is touring the French countryside with his traveling theater company, and he's yet to be recognized as one of the continent's great authors (or achieve significant financial success). Molière is put in jail after skipping out on some unpaid debts, but is freed after his fine is paid by two strangers. Molière discovers his benefactors are acting on behalf of Jourdain (Fabrice Luchini), a very wealthy man who has a beautiful wife, Elmire (Laura Morante) and two lovely daughters. However, Jourdain has fallen head over heels for Celimene (Ludivine Sagnier), a gorgeous widow, and he's written a short play in order to demonstrate his feelings for her. Jourdain needs someone to help him polish his script and serve as an acting coach, and he's recruited Molière for the job. Needing the money, Moliere accepts, but he poses as a man of the cloth, Monsieur Tartuffe, to keep his identity a secret. Molière soon realizes that Jourdain's talent exists only in the rich man's imagination, and that Jourdain already has a rival for Celimene's affections, the charming but duplicitous Dorante (Edouard Baer). Molière was written and directed by Laurent Tirard. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, (more)
A man tries to hold on to his bachelor lifestyle by getting engaged in this romantic comedy. Luis (Alain Chabat) is a man in his mid-fourties who has been happily unmarried all his life. Luis nearly wed his sweetheart when he was 21, but the meddling of his mother (Bernadette Lafont) and five sisters drove the young lady away, and since then he's devoted his romantic attentions to short-term relationships while earning a good living working in the perfume industry. However, his family remains determined to fix him up with eligible women, and Luis has grown tired of it. With the help of a colleague, Luis concocts a plan -- his friend's daughter Emma (Charlotte Gainsbourg) agrees to pose as his fiancée and then abandon him at the altar, which should silence his mother and sisters on the subject of matrimony once and for all. While Luis and Emma's relationship is all business, she does a flawless job of convincing his family that she loves him and is determined to be his wife -- so much so that Luis wonders if she might be serious about him after all. Directed by Eric Lartigau, Prête-Moi Ta Main (aka I Do) was a major box-office success in France, attracting nearly three million viewers in its first month of release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alain Chabat, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
- 2004
In this tart comedy from France, Raphael (Edouard Baer) is a glib but talented author who has built a career out of ghost-writing autobiographies for a variety of celebrities. Raphael is also happily dating Muriel (Marie-Josée Croze), a successful architect, but that begins to change when he begins his latest project, a book on soccer superstar Kevin (Clovis Cornillac). While wading through Kevin's monumental ego and strange creative notions is a challenge in itself, what really sets Raphael's mind off course is the discovery that Kevin is dating Claire (Alice Taglioni), the object of Raphael's unrequited affection while he was in college. Raphael is suddenly determined to win Claire away from Kevin, though he hasn't figured out how to do this without alienating his wife and his client. Mensonges et Trahisons et Plus Si Affinité (released in English-speaking territories as The Story of My Life) was screened in competition at the 2004 Avignon Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
