Comédie Francaise Season 2022

The Comédie-Française (also known as The French National Theatre) returns to cinemas worldwide with a season entirely dedicated to Molière for his 400th anniversary.

Get a front row seat to the best of French theatre in the cinema, starring the Troupe and the actors of the Académie de la Comédie-Française.

SEASON 2022

The Imaginary Invalid
Sunday, May 22, 1:00 pm

Playwright: Molière
Director: Claude Stratz
In French with English subtitles

Argan, a cantankerous hypochondriac obsessed by his ailments, is surrounded by a court of corrupt and ignorant doctors who take advantage of him. A tyrannical father, he is set on marrying his daughter Angélique to the nephew of Monsieur Purgon, his faithful personal physician. However, she is in love with the young Cléante and resists his wishes, even if it means being sent to a convent. The odious stepmother Béline further fuels the conflict. It takes the tenacity and wiles of the maid Toinette for the masks to fall.

Written when Molière was in a weakened state, his last play is nonetheless one of his most brilliant comedies – as if he had gathered all the resources of his genius to reach the summit of his art. A timeless classic!

Tartuffe or the Hypocrite
Sunday, June 26, 1:00 pm

Molière’s Forbidden Original Version

Playwright: Molière
Director: Ivo van Hove
In French with English subtitles

“A Mind-Blowing Staging” – Les Echos
“A Masterpiece” – Artistikrezo
“Dark, Sulfurous, Bold” – FranceInfo
“Superbly Intense” – Télérama

In his quest for Christian perfection, the wealthy Orgon has welcomed the devout Tartuffe into his home to be a spiritual guide to the entire household. But unable to resist temptation himself, Tartuffe falls in love with Orgon’s wife. Caught in the act of confessing his desire to the beautiful Elmire, he only escapes at the cost of a descent into hypocrisy, driving the family to the brink of implosion…

Did you think you already knew Tartuffe? The director, Ivo van Hove, has us discover the original version, censored in 1664 by the King the day after the premiere and therefore only performed once in its history.

The Miser
Sunday, October 2, 1:00 pm

Playwright: Molière
Director: Lilo Baur
In French with English subtitles

Harpagon, a rich widower, is obsessed with money. His avarice gets in the way of his two children’s romantic plans: Élise is in love with Valère, a Neapolitan gentleman in her father’s service as a steward, and Cléante wishes to marry Mariane, a young orphan with no fortune. When he learns that his son is his rival for the beautiful Mariane and that a box of gold has been stolen from him, his fury knows no bounds, leaving his entire family astonished at his behaviour…

From Harpagon’s unhealthy stinginess to the ardour of a frustrated youth, this production by Lilo Baur brings out all the shades of a cult – and surprisingly modern – comedy.

The Bourgeois Gentleman
Sunday, Nov 13, 1:00 pm

Playwright: Molière
Director: Valérie Lesort & Christian Hecq
In French with English subtitles

Monsieur Jourdain is a rich bourgeois whose obsession is to belong to the nobility. To achieve this goal, he tries to acquire the manners of the gentry by taking many private lessons (music, dance, fencing, philosophy). He refuses to give his daughter in marriage to the young man she loves because he is not noble. But he changes his mind when the latter disguises himself as a “great Turk” and offers to raise Monsieur Jourdain to the dignified status of “Mamamouchi” in exchange for his daughter’s hand in marriage…

In the great tradition of comedy-ballets, Valérie Lesort and Christian Hecq stage Molière’s famous Bourgeois Gentleman with music and dance. They put all their imagination into exposing the excesses of Monsieur Jourdain, who dreams of nobility without paying heed to ridicule.