Liberté

Liberté (2019)

1774, shortly before the French Revolution, somewhere between Potsdam and Berlin. Madame de Dumeval, the Duke de Tesis and the Duke de Wand, libertines expelled from the puritanical court of Louis XVI, seek the support of the legendary Duc de Walchen, German seducer and freethinker, lonely in a country where hypocrisy and false virtue reign. Their mission is to export libertinage, a philosophy of enlightenment founded on the rejection of moral boundaries and authorities, but moreover to find a safe place to pursue their errant games, where the quest for pleasure no longer obeys laws other than those dictated by unfulfilled desires.

Date of release
2019-09-04
TMDB
4.9 / 10 (53)
Runtime
2h 12m
Genres
Drama, History
Director
Albert Serra

Casting

Interesting facts

Liberté is a 2019 drama film written and directed by Albert Serra. Set in the 18th century, it tells the story of a group of libertines that spend a night of sexual debauchery in the forest. An international coproduction, the film had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2019. It was the final film appearance of Helmut Berger before his death in May 2023.

Production

The film was preceded by an installation at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and a theater play. For the film, Albert Serra got inspiration from the French painters such as Alexandre-Évariste Fragonard and François Boucher. The cast consists of a mix of professional and non-professional actors.

Initially the scene in which the men pour milk and semen on the totally naked body of Mademoiselle de Jensling, played by Iliana Zabeth, was supposed to be a little different. "In my main scene, for example, I was supposed to be tied up, but not suspended, this was decided later. Then I did a lot of research on shibari. Then other elements were added to the shooting, such as milk. We explored a lot on set," said Zabeth.

Talking about the 'golden shower' scene, director Albert Serra revealed that the guy being urinated on by Theodora Marcadé (playing Madame de Dumeval) and by off-screen participants, wasn't a professional actor. "It's played by the guy who does the post-production of all my films, he came on set especially for that, it's the only time I made a request," Serra said.

The cast consists of a mix of professional and non-professional actors and includes two of the film's technicians. One of them is Laura Poulvet, who is the set decorator but also plays Mademoiselle de Geldöbel's character.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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