Le Libertin (2000)
Directed by Gabriel Aghion

Film Review

Le Libertin is a daring attempt to combine the lavish historical drama (for which French cinema is particularly renowned) with bawdy farce - a film which would almost certainly have ended up with the title “Carry On Diderot” if it had been made in England.  Whilst the film is, overall, entertaining and includes some hilarious set pieces (the 'pig organ' being perhaps the best and sickest example), not all of the jokes work and there is a sense that too much is being crammed into too small a space - rather like Baroness Holbach's endless, anachronistic binging on chocolate, caviar and popcorn.

The film was directed by Gabriel Aghion, who won both fame and notoriety with Pédale douce, a comedy which, as in his subsequent films, made light of matters sexual.   For Le Libertin, Aghion's most extravagant film to date, the director was inspired by a stage play by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, who agreed to adapt his play for the film.   With big names such as Vincent Pérez, Fanny Ardant and Josiane Balasko heading a star-studded cast, the film should have been a run-away success.  Unfortunately - despite some great comic performances (Balasko is deliriously funny in her role), the film did not impress the critics greatly and it failed to be the huge commercial success its producers were probably expecting.

Film Synopsis

France, in the mid-1700s.  Denis Diderot, arguably the greatest philosopher of his age, is labouring on what will be his undoubted masterpiece, The Encyclopaedia.  In later years, this will be hailed as his greatest achievement, but in his own unenlightened times, he has many enemies - notably the Church - who are determined to thwart him and destroy his work.  Baron Holbach, one of France's more enlightened aristocrats, comes to Diderot's aid, offering him a place in his château where he can not only continue writing his magnum opus, but also begin printing it in secret.

The philosopher is struggling to come up with a succinct definition of the word 'morality' when the nymphomaniac woman artist Madame Therbouche asks him if he will pose naked for her next painting.  Naturally, always one to oblige a good-looking lady, he gives his consent.  Madame Therbouche is a canny temptress and it is with consummate ease that she wheedles out of Diderot the location of his printing press - it is hidden in the baron's chapel.  The noise of the press is completely masked by the playing of the chapel organ.

Diderot's work is threatened by the sudden arrival of Holbach's puritanical brother, a prim and proper cardinal who is easily shocked by the exhibitions of licentious behaviour he sees all around him in the baron's grounds.  The sight of Diderot standing stark naked in the garden doesn't exactly improve his estimation of the supposed man of letters.  The philosopher has other worries to contend with.  His wife has had enough of his philandering and plans to run off with his daughter, Angélique.  The latter gives the philosopher further cause for concern when she confides in him that she wants to have a child but has no desire to marry...