In 1658, playwright and actor Molière is back in Paris after touring the kingdom of France with his company of players, having been given a theater in the capital by the King. One day, a young lady asks him to follow her to the deathbed of her mother, reviving a moment in the playwright’s past that would become critical to his future success. Thirteen years earlier, Molière already had a theatrical troupe but was thrown into prison for bankruptcy. His debt is covered by Monsieur Jourdain, a rich man who wants him to help him rehearse a one-act play he has written. Jourdain is married to Elmire, is the respectable father of two daughters, and he wants Molière to be introduced into the house as Tartuffe, an austere priest, instead of as a disgraced theater scribe. As a result, all manner of misunderstandings and misadventures ensue...This film is a fictional rendition of a mysterious part of Molière’s life, from which filmmaker Laurent Tirard was inspired to “orchestrat[e] an imaginary meeting between the author and its work .”

Laurent Tirard, director
Laurent Tirard studied filmmaking at New York University, worked as a script reader for Warner Bros. studios, then became a journalist and worked for the French film magazine Studio for six years. There, he conducted a series of interviews on filmmaking which have been published as a book under the title “Moviemakers' Mister Class: Private Lessons from the World's Foremost Directors.” In 1997, he left the magazine and began writing scripts for film and television. He went on to direct his first two films, both shorts, in 1999 and 2000. He wrote and directed his first feature, THE STORY OF MY LIFE, in 2004, co-wrote the hugely successful PRÊTE-MOI TA MAIN (I DO, OR HOW TO REMAIN SINGLE) for Alain Chabat in 2005, then wrote and directed his second film, MOLIERE, the following year.

Romain Duris, actor
Dans Paris (2007), Dir. Christophe Honoré
Russian Dolls (2006), Dir. Cédric Klapisch
Exiles (2006), Dir. Tony Gatlif
Arsène Lupin (2005), Dir. Jean-Paul Salomé
The Car Keys (2005), Dir. Laurent Baffie
Le Divorce (2003), Dir. James Ivory
Pot Luck (2003), Dir. Cédric Klapisch
Adolphe (2002), Dir. Benoît Jacquot
The Spanish Apartment (2002) Dir. Cedric Klapisch