The Libertine - Cover

The Libertine

By Gabriel Aghion

2000

History

1h40

memorizer logo

7.3/10

allociné logo

2.3/5

Press

2.2/5

Spect.

Synopsis

The 'philosopher' (modernist intellectual of the French 18th-century Enlightenment) Denis Diderot is part of an aristocratic circle which practices the libertarian principles on the rural castle estate of the baron of Holbach, and prints their forbidden publication, the Encyclopédie, drowning the noise of the presses in Jewish assistant Abraham's organ playing. Then arrives Madame Therbouche, a flirtatious painter, from the Prussian metropolis Berlin, and convinces Diderot to pose for her more daring then his idol fellow-philosopher Voltaire in Berlin: in the nude, leading to an animated row with his wife Antoinette, still naked except for a very unsteady sheet, all over the estate's park. Worse, the saucy scene is witnessed by a feared visitor, Holbach's brother the Cardinal, who is hunting for the illegal Encyclopaedia printers; to divert him, the baroness confesses her real and imagined sins since years and next sends in every female to do the same, later joined spontaneously by chevalier (marquis in the end credits) de Jerfeuil, who got a livelier show the he bargained for when accepting to be shown two inseparable marquis's 'sabre collection' which proves not of the military variety. The baroness also treats her guests to (then) most exotic foods and naughty pictures, yet even for her the freedman Turkish hamam eunuch Mohamed takes hospitality for female guests too far into intimate massage to their taste. His personal experience keeps changing Diderot's ideas, and therefore the article he is writing on 'morale' (morality). Secrets end up getting out, both the portraitist's true agenda and what goes on in the chapel, which the Cardinal finally gets into to 'recollect himself' after hearing so many unsettling lustful sins...—KGF Vissers

Trailer

Casting

GA

Gabriel Aghion

Director

Vincent Perez

Vincent Perez

Denis Diderot

Michel Serrault

Michel Serrault

le cardinal

Fanny Ardant

Fanny Ardant

Madame Therbouche

Arielle Dombasle

Arielle Dombasle

Madame de Jerfeuil

Josiane Balasko

Josiane Balasko

Baronne d'Holbach

Bruno Todeschini

Bruno Todeschini

Marquis de Cambrol

Christian Charmetant

Christian Charmetant

Chevalier de Jerfeuil

Audrey Tautou

Audrey Tautou

Julie d'Holbach

Vahina Giocante

Vahina Giocante

Angélique Diderot

Françoise Lépine

Françoise Lépine

Madame Diderot

FR

François Lalande

Baron d'Holbach

AR

Arnaud Lemaire

Marquis de Lutz

YA

Yan Duffas

Abraham

VE

Veronique Vella

La cousine de Jerfeuil

Eric Savin

Eric Savin

Chef de la police

TH

Thierry Nzeutem

Mohamed

FR

François Guillaume

Samson

List