For Jacques Weber, Molière was a "much more rebellious man than he seems"

Ugo Pascolo 11:26 a.m., January 15, 2022, modified at 11:29 a.m., January 15, 2022

The Miser, the Misanthrope, Tartuffe, Les Fourberies de Scapin

… Jacques Weber is a connoisseur of Molière, and for good reason, he had the chance to play "nearly 200 times" all the most important characters imagined by Jean- Baptist Poquelin.

Guest of Europe 1 this Saturday, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the playwright's baptism (his date of birth being uncertain), the actor reveals his vision of one of the greatest French feathers.

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Molière depicts the bourgeois order

If "Molière intrinsically belongs to the 17th century", this does not prevent him "from being a much more rebellious man than he seems".

"Tartuffe disrupts a family, Alceste disrupts the ruling class, and finally Don Juan disrupts the world", recalls Jacques Weber.

Three stories, "three extremely important cycles" in the eyes of the latter.

"Unlike Shakespeare, who could be said to be the quintessential cosmological author, [...] Molière portrays the bourgeois order and says it would take a bit of disorder to question it."

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And that's not all.

If Molière lived long before the sexual revolution of women, his female characters are far from empty.

"His women are in love with freedom, with the recognition of their desires."

However, Jacques Weber affirms it with a certain firmness: "You have to be very careful about this kind of idolatry that some of my friends, my comrades maintain, saying that Molière is still our contemporary."

Molière at the Pantheon? 

As to whether Molière should enter the Pantheon and become a "great man", the actor "doesn't give a damn about his first shirt".

"What I want is for Molière to be revisited by very great directors and very great actors, of which he is a part."