Alceste à bicyclette (Cycling with Molière與莫里哀結伴同行)

It's a rare cinematic experience to go through the greater part of 104 minutes of screen time with just two actors constantly repeating certain lines from a play over and over again with only some slight variations in a house or whilst cycling on a narrow grit path upon an embankment close to the sea in an out of the way little seaside town in the south west of France without yawning from time to time. Yet that is exactly what happened last night when I saw Philippe Le Guay's Alceste a bicyclette. The two actors are Fabrice Luchini as Serge Tanneur and Lambert Wilson as Gauthier Valence. They were rehearsing the lines from what is thought to be one of Molière's greatest plays, Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire amoureux (the Misanthrope or the Cantankerous Lover) , a 17th-century comedy of manners in Alexandrines first performed on 4 June 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris by the King's Players. It's a play in which Molière was do his best to satirizes certain hypocritical practices and ideals of the French aristocrats but his criticisms actually may be extended to all humanity and not just the French nobility at the time. Different from other farces of the time, Molière characters there are much more rounded out, much more dynamic, more truly human and not just cardboard figures of fun as similar farces in the 17th century. Its principal character is without a doubt Alceste, a very complex character who holds on tenaciously to some very strict standards of honesty and hence harbors a horrendous hatred of what he considers the unacceptable conduct of the ordinary men and women around him, ie. practically everyone. That's why Molière entitles his play Le Misanthrope (or Misantropist). Yet in the play, despite his values, he loves the heroine Célimène, a playful and flirtatious girl who is courted by a number of other men including Alceste, Oronte, Acaste, and Clitandre.She is always talking behind people's back but is most careful about keeping up appearances. As a result of such complexity, there are endless academic debates as to how exactly the character of Alceste is to be interpreted: is he a hero or is he a fool or in a way another kind of hypocrite, a bit like Don Quixote. The foil to Alceste in the play is Philinte, a polite man who truly cares for Alceste but thinks that one should sometimes not tell others his true opinion for the sake of saving other's face. Who is right, who is wrong?



The film is actually an intense drama about how what Molière was talking about actually happens to two long time friends Serge and Gauthier who used to act together. Serge has retired from all theatre and television and cinema for three years and is now living alone in the Ile de Ré, previously an island and now connected to the nearest port La Rochelle by a bridge, painting, cycling along the wind-swept seaside paths of the island and when the fancy takes him, sitting admiring the Atlantic on an enormous beach, staring into that vast spaciousness which is the sky and the sea indistinguishable upon its horizon, hardly touched by commercialism and reminiscing or forgetting the whole world of entertainment. In fact, very much like Alceste in Molière's play.

As the film opens, we find Gauthier, now the hottest star in his role as "Dr. Morante" in a popular French TV series about the problems and dilemmas of hospital life, taking a taxi to visit an old friend which he hadn't seen for the past 5-6 years in the Ile de Ré. After they exchanged cordialities and reminisced a bit about the times they had together when they were both young actors, Gauthier got down to business: he wanted to present Moliere's famous play, "Le Misanthrope" and he wanted Serge to play the opposite role of Philinte whilst he would play the role of Alceste. Serge played hard to get and asked Gauthier to stay a day so that they could rehearse a bit and see how it went, and then two, and then almost an entire week playing against each other alternatively as Alceste and Philinte although initially, they each wanted the part of Alceste. They decided that it was a good idea for themselves to switch roles on alternate nights, something which had never before been done. They had fun rehearsing, discussing and debating how correctly to perceive the two protagonists and how their dialogues should be articulated , interpreted, expressed, with what kind of accent, how fast and how slow, with what kind of emotions and whether they should be violent, subdued, repressed so as to bring out what they thought Moliere was after: the kind of "hatred" Alceste had for the human race: his disappointment, his despair, his anger, his pains at their hypocrisies etc.

The intensity of their rehearsals are skilfully punctuated or interrupted by the occasional hilarious ringing of cell phones in the middle of some serious dramatic dialogue when the actors were just getting into the mood of the characters, visits to see different houses by the local realtor, Gauthier's experience of the uncontrollable flow of powerful jets of water from the "wonderful" adaptation of jacuzzi technology to an outdoor bathtub in stone which used to be the drinking pool of farm animals, their unexpected swerving and splashing into the shallow waters beside their path whilst they are cycling along the embankment rehearsing the lines along the coastal shallows to avoid being hit by a motor bike driven by a thoughtless young man. In addition, there is also a bit of romantic interest thrown in: an Italian woman who is selling her house seen by the two when Gauthier thought of buying one on the island who had just been talking on the phone to her ex during the divorce proceedings and who treated them very impolitely later was about to begin a relationship with Serge later fell for Gauthier and slept with him, much to the chagrin of Serge,who did his best to appear he didn't care. In addition, there's also an episode in which a teenage porn star, the daughter of the proprietess of the hotel where Gautier was staying who claimed to be interested in stage drama attended one of their rehearsals but who showed absolutely no understanding nor any real interest in what was going on.

I really like this film. The acting by Luchini and Wilson is impeccable: egoists both, but because of their common love of drama, forced to put away their differences for the time being for the sake of the common project but who eventually fell out with each other because at the very last minute, Luchini wanted to get even with Gauthier for taking away what he thought was his girl by announcing at a party to celebrate and to announce the staging of the play,  dressed in full 17th century costume complete with buffons, plumed hat etc, that he would play Alceste instead of alternating as Alceste and Plilinte as previous agreed. It was obvious he was jealous at all the attention that Gauthier got at the party and his relative neglect despite his full costume and arriving late to emphasize his own importance. The film ends with Gauthier playing Alceste against an anaemic Plilinte on the stage when Gauthier as Alceste was stuck speechless when he was about to articulate the word "effrayant/effrayable " over the articulation of which he had previously been taken to task by Serge: a most eloquent comment on the universality and inevitability of the kind of damage that an oversize ego can do to men. A touch of satire a la Molière!