Summary: Under the pretext of holding an improvised rehearsal at Versailles, Moliere gathers his actors and attempts to explain his conception of drama while defining the poetics of a rigorous and innovative dramatic art-and in the process settles some accounts with the troupe of the Hotel de Bourgogne. This play, along with La Critique de L'Ecole des Femmes, served as Moliere's response to the severe...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Monsieur Jourdain, a wealthy tradesman, is sparing no expense to try to buy what he can never be: a born gentleman. As delightful as he is fatuous and as genuine as he is naive, M. Jourdain's attempts to transform himself through custom-tailored clothing and all manner of lessons are absurd to everyone-except himself. But when his pretensions lead him to refuse his daughter's hand to Cleante on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Hypochondriac Argan's household revolves around his obsession with his chronic imaginary illnesses. Served by a pair of unscrupulous doctors, Argan even goes so far as to try to marry off his daughter Angelique to one of their sons so he would have a physician in the family. But Angelique is in love with Cleante, and it takes all of the wiles of servant Toinette to bring about their marriage....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Sganarelle is a wealthy man of sixty-four who proposes to Dorimene, a flirtatious young woman in her teens. But as second thoughts assail him, he consults with his friend Geronimo, a couple of philosophers, and even a pair of fortune-tellers. Convinced that he will become the butt of marital infidelity, he struggles to break off the engagement-until Dorimene's brother gives him a sound beating,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: A notorious lothario, Dom Juan is the despair of his longsuffering servant, Sganarelle. He carries on his many seductions without a care, deceiving and leaving woman after woman-including the noble Elvire, whose brothers promptly swear vengeance against him. After successfully eluding them, Dom Juan mockingly invites to dinner the statue of a man he had recently killed. When the statue's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Fearful of falling victim to marital infidelity, bachelor Arnolphe schemes to marry his guileless young ward, Agnes, whom he has had raised in a convent specifically to be his model wife. However, his naive plan is spoiled when Agnes runs away with Horace-a fact that Arnolphe learns when Horace unwittingly asks him to conceal her at his home. Before Arnolphe can react, it is revealed that...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Pseudo-intellectualism is all the fashion, and Chrysale is a man under siege. Philaminte, his wife, is enthralled by the pedantic poet Trissotin and is determined to marry their youngest daughter, Henriette, to him in spite of her husband's opposition and Henriette's protests that she be allowed to marry the sensible Clitandre. In the end, Henriette is united with her beloved, but not before...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Gorgibus, a provincial bourgeois, moves to Paris in the hopes of marrying his daughter and niece to a pair of young men of good families. Unfortunately, Magdelon and Cathos, enamored of the affectations of Parisian society, reject their suitors for lacking the flamboyant manners they so adore. In retaliation, the suitors pass off their valets as highly fashionable noblemen, who succeed in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Having lost all patience with the flattery and hypocrisy of fashionable society, Alceste has vowed to speak and act only with complete sincerity. Paradoxically, he falls in love with the epitome of all that he despises: the cruel coquette Celimene. Disgusted by his loss in a lawsuit in which justice was on his side, Alceste resolves to abandon society once and for all, and asks Celimene to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: When the religious charlatan Tartuffe insinuates himself into the household of the wealthy but credulous Orgon, it is not long before he takes over, acquiring the deed to the property, disinheriting Orgon's son, and becoming betrothed to Orgon's daughter. But when clever Elmire, Orgon's wife, trips up the imposter, Orgon throws him out-only to find himself arrested and his family evicted...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005