The Libertine

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Film: C+

 

 

After being responsible for a series of cheesy black and white films with nudity and silly sexual situations the Audubon Company had to come up with a new trick (no pun intended) not being able to get too sexually explicit.  The simple answer was color film stock and one of the results is the ever-silly The Libertine (1969).

 

Catherine Spaak is Mimi (the title character) ready to explore new sides of her sexuality.  Too bad this is a film that will only allow her to explore stupidity.  Jean-Louis Trintignant was somehow hoodwinked into starring in this film, as if that gave it credibility about what it thought it was showing about sex.  Instead, it is one of his great bad choices.

 

With that said, once you get past the fact that you are being conned, you can enjoy how goofy and dated the film is.  I will give it marks for its attempts to be stylish and actually pushing the color format to some interesting effect, however basic.  As for the themes of the widow Mimi having to deal with her late husband’s big sexual secret (not gay, just cheating with other women in wacky ways), it is a hoot having to see her watch these activities on 16mm film, but the actual implications are never thoroughly addressed.  The film is too busy being bizarre, but that usually also becomes silly.

 

The full frame image is various, especially when censored footage is inserted of poorer quality, but at least that makes the film more complete.  Without that, the film would be even more pointless.  The color fidelity is not bad at its best, but that is just not often enough.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is from various sources, but works out better than many of the monochrome DVDs issued from this series of productions.  Extras include some galleries of stills and trailers of other films in the series, some liner notes from a current fan, outtakes, and the original trailer for this film.

 

Another way of trying to pump up the would-be art appeal of the film is to have a cinematographer with an Italian name (Affio Contini), a female screenplay writer (Nicola Ferrari-Ottavio Jemma) that is also Italian and makes her sound like she knows sex secrets of a major superexoticar company, and any other configuration they could come up with.  Even if all the names are real, they seem as unreal as the film.  The Libertine is a wacky curio at best, but is otherwise a waste of time.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo