A holy man walks into your house and steals everything — including your wife's attention.
Orgon and his mother swear by Tartuffe, the self-styled devout who lives off them. The other members of the family, scandalized by the clergyman's hold over them, will do anything to expose his hypocrisy. Michel Bouquet plays an almost monstrous Tartuffe, whose only weakness lies in his feelings for Elmire.
Acting
Michel Bouquet's Tartuffe — sweaty, magnetic, genuinely terrifying.
Production
Cravenne's theatrical staging makes Molière feel claustrophobically intimate.
Director
Marcel Cravenne
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Molière originally wrote this in 1664; it was banned for five years because the church recognized itself. Cravenne's 1971 version arrived right when French cinema was rediscovering theatrical austerity.
Delphine Seyrig chose this role fresh off Last Year at Marienbad, deliberately shrinking her iconic presence to let Elmire's strategic patience do the talking.
FR
