Would-Be Gentleman

When the prestigious Comedie Francaise decided to finally record a performance of one of their stage productions on film for the first time in 1958, it was a historic event, and the resulting, well received movie was exported for showing in art houses in the US in 1960. The production showcases one of France's greatest actors, Louis Seigner (grandfather of Emmanuele) in one of his finest roles as Jourdain, a rich but stupid bourgeois who thinks he can be accepted as an aristocrat if he is exposed to a bit of music, dance, fencing and philosophy. He is taken advantage of for his ignorance, which culminates in an elaborate masquerade wherein a common born suitor for Jourdain's daughter pretends to be a Turkish noble, and there is much fake Turkish flung about. Another virtue of the staging is the elaborate costuming which conveys a bit of what the play may have looked like when it was first performed for France's King back in 1670. And there is lovely baroque music by Lully, accompanied by stylized posturing and preening. You may not bust out laughing at the humor, but Moliere's dry wit has stood the test of time, he was arguably the most penetrating playwright of satirical comedy since the ancient Greek writer Aristophanes.