I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

OK, Francophiles will boo me, but this oh so slow moving movie left me waiting, not so patiently for it to end. I hoped when one of the two actors mentioned another play, "Othello," apparently because the woman in the movie led to tension between them, that maybe there would be a little murder to end the boredom, hopefully of one of the actors, but no. Slow French movies are of two types, good and not-so good. This film belongs to the latter category. Even one brief TV role of one of the actors wasn't any better than the mother movie; nor a second play within the play where they act Moliere's play did not take off the ground. The two actors in the movie just didn't seem to me to be very good actors. Maybe with "Tartuffe" next time they will do better. The English are better at this kind of thing. and they have Shakespeare to work against.

This maybe describes this movie best. It's not outstanding by any means, but it still makes for a decent watch. If you've seen Polanski's recent "Venus in Fur", you can take that movie and have two males in the center instead a male and female. It's all about an upcoming play and who should be cast as which character. Intense dialogues, mind games and a bit betrayal form the core. The two protagonists are played by Fabrice Luchini and Lambert Wilson. The biggest female role is portrayed by Maya Sansa and stands between the two men obviously. The film was written and directed by Philippe Le Guay with Luchini being involved with the writing as well. At the French Oscars, the César Awards, the film scored nominations for writing, the score and also Luchini's lead performance.All in all, you could describe it as a very French film. If you like these, give it a go. For me personally the scene with the estate agent and the shabby house was pretty funny, the scenes with the broken bicycle not so much. One of the central questions is if Wilson's egocentric character was ready to share the main part in the play. Apart from that, I had my problems with Francesca. In her first scene, she is that stressed-out actor-hating lady in black and right afterward she transforms into that super-nice woman who regrets her past behavior. it just doesn't seem credible to me. Then again, as we see in her final scene, she seems to be extremely fickle. Talking about the end, I would have preferred it to be that very moment when Luchini's character leaves the party and quotes the central character of the play. Could have been more effective that way and I really did not need the final scene with the play taking place. But it's mostly a comedy, not a drama, so it kind of fits I guess, even if it sacrifices some realism (of course he would struggle right there with the text) for cheap laughs and schadenfreude. One thing I liked about though, was that the makers did not go for a happy ending with the two being close friends. Always refreshing to see alternating endings from the traditional "feel-good" stuff, which often seems quite cringeworthy and just for the purpose of fixing everything for good.All in all, it's 100 fairly entertaining minutes that I would recommend, especially if cinéma francais is exactly your thing.

Accepting the world and its ways as they are - however crooked they may be - and be sociable, at the risk of falseness and compromise or sticking to one's moral principles and remaining upright at the risk of keeping a stiff upper lip and becoming estranged from others, such was the problematics in Molière's classic comedy of manners 'The Misanthrope or the Cantankerous Lover', written in 1666.Verifying the relevance and the permanence of this questioning three centuries and a half later, such is Philippe Le Guay's objective in 'Alceste à bicyclette' (Bicycling with Molière), a contemporary cinematic comedy of manners, which might well become a classic of the genre in the years to come. Our present-time Alceste goes by the name of Serge Tanneur and is personified in a tailor-made role by Fabrice Luchini. Serge is the very type of the demanding actor who places his art above everything else. He is now retired in his home on the Île de Ré because he refuses to go on playing in inferior commercial products. Face to him meet the Philinte of today, Gauthier Valence, his former friend, a fellow-actor who also thinks high of his art, but who has squandered his talent in basely commercial stuff, especially in a TV soap entitled "Dr. Morange", which has made him a star adored by audiences, especially female.What brings together the two thespians, one stern and pure, the other wavering and impure, is the latter's wish to clean up his tarnished reputation by grappling with loftier material. To this end he is to direct - what else? - 'The Misanthrope' and to play - who else? - the role of Philinte in a prestigious production of Molière's masterpiece. And who has he considered for the part of Alceste ? Well done, good guess: Serge Tanneur!The question is: will the misanthropist accept to play 'The Misanthrope' alongside a traitor to his art like Gauthier ? Naturally, nothing is less certain...Revolving around the improbable reunion of two former friends turned enemies, 'Alceste à bicyclette' could be content to be an amusing ego vs. ego comedy, served by two major actors. Which it is actually: how could it be otherwise with Fabrice Luchini confronting Lambert Wilson, the former haughty, aggressive, never getting off his high horse and the latter charming, cajoling but maybe even more devious than his partner? But a closer look reveals a much more complex work dealing intelligently with various themes among which: - how to play a classic and keep current audiences interested, - purity and intolerance; opportunism and sociability, - the moral's of today's world - friendship and betrayal, - true love and philandering. Be reassured though. Philippe Le Guay is not one of those arty artists worked up about things and always giving lessons. On the contrary, the author does his utmost to help the medicine go down by resorting to the best excipient ever, comedy. For sure, when it comes to humor, Le Guay masters all the ropes to perfection. In this particular movie, he runs the whole gamut of laughter, from the most basic sight gags (Lambert Wilson trapped in a jacuzzi run wild; the same repeatedly falling off his bike) to the most sophisticated ones (Serge's way to avenge himself). And that is not all. Not content to be intelligent and funny, "Alceste à bicyclette" has genuine moments of emotion (I refer, in particular to two really moving sequences, that of Serge's return to life through love for an Italian woman and the other featuring a teenager acting in porn movies unexpectedly transcended by her sensitive reading of Molière's text). French audiences were in no way deterred by a movie dealing essentially with the rehearsals of a play written in the language of the 17th century. Over a million people came to see it. This just shows what wonders Philippe Le Guay and his faithful cohort Fabrice Luchini can work. They already done it with 'L'année Juliette', 'Le coût de la vie' and 'Les femmes du 6ème étage'. Let us hope they will do it again soon.

Some friends of mine (not the youngest amongst them, to say the truth) told me this movie was nice, really worth watching. They even chuckled while quoting this title, as if recalling the movie had the effect of cheering them up. So I thought it really should be a lovely film.I watched it with a considerable delay on its release but I don't see how this could affect the results. And the result was that what pleased them so much seemed to me a most depressing story about two friends in their sixties, whose good qualities (if they ever had any) had long vanished by now leaving them selfish and unhappy.But what surprised me the most was that instead of treating this matter lightly, in a satirical way, the Authors wrote a pedant piece, devoid of any funny ideas, as if reciting Molière's 'Le Misanthrope' (several times the same pages…) could substitute for them. Unfortunately, on my opinion, Master's greatness didn't pass into the movie and nothing substituted for the absence of wit.