The Miser

The Miser (L'Avare, 1980) is a French comedy starring Louis de Funès that you can watch online on iFILM. Old Harpagon guards a chest of gold buried in his garden and would happily marry off his own children rather than part with a single coin.

De Funès takes on Molière's notorious skinflint: a wealthy man who starves his servants, makes them patch their rags, and suspects every passerby of eyeing his treasure. He plans to hand his daughter Élise to the elderly Anselme purely because the suitor will take her without a dowry, and to pair his son Cléante with a much older widow. The trouble is that both children are already in love — and Harpagon has set his own sights on the very girl his son adores. Michel Galabru and Claude Gensac add to the household uproar.

Jean Girault and de Funès himself brought the 1668 stage classic to the screen without sanding down its satire: greed here is pushed into full grotesque, all trembling hands and shrieks over a missing strongbox. Fans of de Funès get his trademark mugging in 17th-century costume; Molière readers get a text that plays alive rather than embalmed. Stream The Miser (1980) online on iFILM.