Maybe I take it all too serious being a European from the north. And I must admit I never read or heard Le Misanthrope. But I thought the idea of mixing up the play of Moliere and the story of the movie did not work for me completely. The story is too weak to show a real conflict between the two main figures. The jokes in the movie have mostly nothing to do with that conflict and merely take away the attention from that conflict. The slapstick of the jacuzzi incident though it made me laugh, has nothing to do with whatever. The bike incidents are silly and bad acted. (The clothes are dry and clean in the next scene). The end of the movie where the main figure shows that he is a real misanthrope and why should have been more prominent. I found the end interesting but would have liked to see more of the hate and decline of people in the main figure. It should have been more a melodrama or even a drama instead of a comedy.

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.

"Alceste à bicyclette" is about two actors. One is Gauthier Valance (Lambert Wilson), a handsome actor who is currently the star of a medical drama on TV. The second is Serge Tanneur (Fabrice Luchini), a retired old school actor who now lives a hermit-like life on a small resort town.Valance planned to stage celebrated French playwright Moliere's ultimate classic play entitled "The Misanthrope." Valance wanted to play the lead role Alceste, and was coaxing Tanneur out of retirement to play the secondary role of Philinte. Tanneur could not make up his mind and convinced Valance to stay on for a week, so they can practice reading the play, each actor alternating in each role.However, an Italian divorcée named Francesca (Maya Sansa) gets into the picture and drives the story of the two actors from its multiple scenes of rehearsals to its climax and resolution. I knew no French, and had to rely on English translations. I am pretty sure that a lot of the humor and drama was lost in the translation. The other problem is the fact that I did not know "The Misanthrope" nor about Moliere himself. So I am sure I am also missing out on a lot of nuances in the conversations between the two guys. This movie is all about passion -- the consuming passion of Tanneur about Moliere, in particular. I can try to understand it of course, but I am sure I would appreciate it more had I known more about the playwright and his works.

I saw this film last night on a flight from Paris to Santiago. And even though the screen was tiny, the beauty of the film simply shone from the screen.Wonderful and witty dialogs, beautiful undercurrents in what's happening and a scene (spoiler alert) with the lead actor and an outdoor horse- watering trough converted into a jacuzzi that's hilarious and has to be seen to be truly appreciated.As the film progresses, so does its complexity and we see that characters that seem marginal to the film tend to become vital to the plot.One of the most beautiful sequences is a cycling scene, that not only alludes to the title, but also to that wonderful film: "Jules et Jim" by Francois Truffaut. And the allusion is not only in relation to the specific scene, but also to the plot of Jules et Jim.I'm only giving it a nine because it's very difficult to properly judge a film on a teeny screen 11.000 meters above the Atlantic...