The Grand Dukes

The Grand Dukes (Les Grands Ducs, 1996) brought three great French actors together under Patrice Leconte's direction — watch online on iFILM. Philippe Noiret, Jean-Pierre Marielle, and Jean Rochefort play aging stage comedians with famous names and empty schedules who sign on for a tour of a terrible play through provincial venues because the alternative is nothing.

The road does what roads do: decades of professional rivalry and petty resentments surface in a confined space. Leconte plays it gentle rather than broad — rueful comedy, not farce — and the three leads carry it with the ease of actors who've been doing this their whole lives. Stream The Grand Dukes (1996) online on iFILM.