Les Femmes savantes(1966)

On the occasion of the fiftieth edition of the French Theater Festival in Israel, Francis Huster takes to the stage in Tel Aviv to perform the play "Molière, le magnifique." This is an opportunity for him to introduce Molière's language to novices and to showcase his work, which still touches and speaks to us today. Recorded for Olympia TV (Canal+ Group) during the 5th edition of the Horizons Festival at the Beit Lessin Theater in Tel Aviv on October 26, 2022, in Israel.

Marquise is a drama about the rise and fall of a beauteous actress. As cheerfully portrayed by Sophie Marceau, the eponymous heroine is an engagingly ribald, but perhaps rather too modern, character. She rises from an impoverished background to become a favourite of the Sun King, Louis XIV, and the mistress of the celebrated Racine, who wrote roles especially for her; but her fate, in the end, is a tragic one.

The fortunes of a small theatrical company based in the Paris suburbs.

A return to its roots for Castor et Pollux, Jean-Philippe Rameau’s lyric tragedy first performed in 1737 at the Académie royale and inspired by the mythological episode of the Gemini. Rarely performed in its original version – the score was reworked by Rameau himself in 1754 –, this daring work plays on contrasts and expressiveness, as in the famous “Tristes apprêts”. The aria is sung by Télaïre mourning the death of her fiancé Castor, killed in battle, before his twin brother Pollux descends into the Underworld to ask his father, Jupiter, to bring him back to life. While this opera celebrates brotherly love, its prologue poses an essential question for director Peter Sellars: how do you stop a war and its attendant hatred and resentment?

Why do we often go to dinners we don't want to attend, to see friends who aren't really friends anymore? Out of habit? Out of kindness? Out of cowardice? Intoxicated by the idea of tidying up their schedules by sorting through their old friends, Pierre and Clotilde Lecoeur (played by ERIC ELMOSNINO and LYSIANE MEIS) decide to organize farewell dinners, the ultimate form of friendly divorce. However, by choosing - as their first victim - Antoine Royer (played by GUILLAUME DE TONQUÉDEC), their oldest friend, Pierre and Clotilde are unaware that they are getting caught up in a downward spiral.

In this adaptation of the play by Molière, Monsieur Jourdain, social climber, nouveau rich but naive, dreams of being recognized in high society. He hires masters of music, dance, philosophy. He has gone mad with thoughts of honors, decorations, and power.