The Miser

The Miser (French: L'Avare; pronounced: [lavaʁ]) is a five-act comedy in prose by the French playwright Molière. It was first performed on September 9, 1668, in the theatre of the Palais-Royal in Paris.

The play

The play was first produced when Molière's company was under the protection of Louis XIV himself. It was loosely based on the Latin comedy Aulularia by Plautus, from which many incidents and scraps of dialogue are borrowed, as well as from contemporary Italian farces.

The miser of the title is called Harpagon, a name adapted from the Latin harpago, meaning a hook or grappling iron. He is obsessed with the wealth he has amassed and always ready to save expenses. Now a widower, he has a son, Cléante, and a daughter, Élise. Although he is over sixty, he is attempting to arrange a marriage between himself and an attractive young woman, Mariane. She and Cléante are already devoted to each other, however, and the son attempts to procure a loan to help her and her sick mother, who are impoverished. Élise, Harpagon's daughter, is the beloved of Valère, but her father hopes to marry her to a wealthy man of his choosing, Seigneur Anselme. Meanwhile, Valère has taken a job as steward in Harpagon's household so as to be close to Élise. The complications are only resolved at the end by the rather conventional discovery that some of the principal characters are long lost relatives.

The Miser (film)

The Miser (Italian: L'avaro) is a 1990 Italian comedy film directed by Tonino Cervi. It is a loose adaptation of Molière's comedy The Miser.

Plot summary

The rich and miserly Don Arpagone lives his days following precise patterns and commanding his servants and sons. He wants to marry a rich girl named Marianna, but is loved by the boy Valerio, without Arpagone know. As if that were not enough, Arpagone, in addition to wanting the inheritance of the new bride, intends to marry his daughter with a rich noble to earn more money.
Don Arpagone also has a chest full of gold coins, which jealously guards because he fears that everybody wants to steal it, including the servants and children in his family. Just when one day Arpagone drops his guard, his young friend Valerio steals the cash coins to marry his beautiful lover ...

Cast

The Miser (1908 film)

The Miser (French: L'Avare) is a 1908 French short silent film directed by Georges Méliès.

Production

The miser character in the film is probably Harpagon, from Molière's play The Miser. Méliès appears in the film both as the poor man and as the man who brings the cask back.

Close viewing of the first scene indicates that it was filmed in Méliès's glass-roofed studio beneath a cloudy sky. When the sun comes out, the shadows it casts are clearly visible for several seconds; then, as tracing-paper panels are put against the glass to diffuse the light, the panel's shadows also become visible. Some of the film was shot outside, in the garden of Méliès's property in Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis.

Release and survival

The Miser was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 1146–1158 in its catalogues, where it is listed as a scène artistique dramatico-comique. The surviving print is incomplete; another scene is evidenced in a production still, but it is presumed lost.