Liberté (2019)
(Liberty)
Country: FR/PORT/SP/GER
Technical: col 138m
Director: Albert Serra
Cast: Helmut Berger, Marc Susini, Iliana Zabeth, Laura Poulvet
Synopsis:
During the reign of Louis XVI, as revolutionary ideas take hold, a group of libertines retires to the forest neighbouring Germany to plot the enthronement of their own vicious pleasures. Over the course of one night they abduct girls from a neighbouring convent and give themselves up to debauchery without end.
Review:
...At least that is one possible reading: how much of what takes place is necessarily real is uncertain, and so little is seen through the gloom, wide shot or close up, giving free rein to the viewer's imagination; while unexplained screams pierce the obscurity. Theoretical conversations between the libertines, defying each other in puerile excess, alternate with interminable shots of silvan stasis, where the only action comes from the crickets and rustling foliage on the soundtrack. In a sense Serra is right, his film is beyond criticism: one could dismiss it as pernicious and incoherent, or laud it as the most perfect representation of the Sadean world the cinema has yet provided. And just as boringly repetitious.
(Liberty)
Country: FR/PORT/SP/GER
Technical: col 138m
Director: Albert Serra
Cast: Helmut Berger, Marc Susini, Iliana Zabeth, Laura Poulvet
Synopsis:
During the reign of Louis XVI, as revolutionary ideas take hold, a group of libertines retires to the forest neighbouring Germany to plot the enthronement of their own vicious pleasures. Over the course of one night they abduct girls from a neighbouring convent and give themselves up to debauchery without end.
Review:
...At least that is one possible reading: how much of what takes place is necessarily real is uncertain, and so little is seen through the gloom, wide shot or close up, giving free rein to the viewer's imagination; while unexplained screams pierce the obscurity. Theoretical conversations between the libertines, defying each other in puerile excess, alternate with interminable shots of silvan stasis, where the only action comes from the crickets and rustling foliage on the soundtrack. In a sense Serra is right, his film is beyond criticism: one could dismiss it as pernicious and incoherent, or laud it as the most perfect representation of the Sadean world the cinema has yet provided. And just as boringly repetitious.
(Liberty)
Country: FR/PORT/SP/GER
Technical: col 138m
Director: Albert Serra
Cast: Helmut Berger, Marc Susini, Iliana Zabeth, Laura Poulvet
Synopsis:
During the reign of Louis XVI, as revolutionary ideas take hold, a group of libertines retires to the forest neighbouring Germany to plot the enthronement of their own vicious pleasures. Over the course of one night they abduct girls from a neighbouring convent and give themselves up to debauchery without end.
Review:
...At least that is one possible reading: how much of what takes place is necessarily real is uncertain, and so little is seen through the gloom, wide shot or close up, giving free rein to the viewer's imagination; while unexplained screams pierce the obscurity. Theoretical conversations between the libertines, defying each other in puerile excess, alternate with interminable shots of silvan stasis, where the only action comes from the crickets and rustling foliage on the soundtrack. In a sense Serra is right, his film is beyond criticism: one could dismiss it as pernicious and incoherent, or laud it as the most perfect representation of the Sadean world the cinema has yet provided. And just as boringly repetitious.