The Libertine (2000 film)
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Le Libertin (The Libertine) is a French film, a comedy, directed by Gabriel Aghion, released in 2000. It is an adaptation of a 1997 play by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt.
Synopsis
The philosopher Denis Diderot, one of the modernist of the French 18th century Age of Enlightenment movement, is a guest at the rural castle of the Baron Holbach, and prints in hiding in the chapel his forbidden Encyclopédie, drowning the noise of the presses in Jewish assistant Abraham's organ playing.
Then arrives from Berlin, Madame Therbouche, a flirtatious painter and intrigante. She has made a painting of Diderot's idol, fellow-philosopher Voltaire, and convinces him to be more daring and to pose for her in the nude, leading to an animated row with his wife Antoinette. The scene is witnessed by a feared visitor, Baron Holbach's brother, the Cardinal, who is hunting for the illegal Encyclopédie printers. To divert him, the Baroness confesses to him her real and imagined sins and next send every female of the castle to do the same, notably her guest the depraved Madame de Jerfeuil, who is having a lesbian affair with her cousin, later joined spontaneously by her husband the Chevalier de Jerfeuil, which has just been seduced by two male guests of the Baron, the Marquis de Cambrol and the Marquis de Lutz.
Through it all, Diderot's ideas keep changing about the article he is working on, morality. Eventually secrets end up getting out, both the painter's true agenda (she is a thief) and what is going on in the chapel, while the Cardinal "recollects" himself after hearing so many lustful sins!
Cast
- Denis Diderot - Vincent Pérez
- Antoinette Diderot - Françoise Lépine
- Madame Therbouche - Fanny Ardant
- Baron Holbach - François Lalande
- Baroness Holbach - Josiane Balasko
- The Cardinal - Michel Serrault
- Chevalier de Jerfeuil - Christian Charmetant
- Madame de Jerfeuil - Arielle Dombasle
- Marquis de Cambrol - Bruno Todeschini
- Marquis de Lutz - Arnaud Lemaire
- The cousin of Madame de Jerfeuil - Véronique Vella
- Abraham - Yan Duffas
