Liberté

After having been drawn in by the first 15 minutes, I was disappointed to find that the rest of the film was a banal, bland, sans-erotic orgy. It's worth watching for about 45 minutes as the filming techniques are compelling; Serra captures the feeling of midnight cruising like no one else. I constantly found myself challenged by the play of shadows and body. 5 stars for technique.

I can understand what the director attempted to do with such a film but the end product is a disaster. Disturbing scenes throughout the film which were shot just for the sake of disturbing the audience without any artistic basis. There are scenes where you watch a tree for five minutes. Acting was awful as well. It was dead boring.

The film somehow tries to make a reflection about pleasure, pain and its popular acceptance, but it fails to do so: dialogues are vague, weak and unmeaningful, and the action simply portrays a series not-mainstream sex scenes (i.e. anus eating and peeing) aimed to provoke an uneasy feeling to the untrained spectator. On the other hand, the lightning, costumes and make up were good, but not enough to watch it again. Nonetheless, it's always an interesting experience to be confronted to these kind of films, it may turn out well for you!

It's impossible to write spoilers for this film, since there is no plot to spoil. The film is just a record of an all-night orgy in a European forest around the time of the French Revolution. The participants are a group of international noblemen and women, and their servants.

It takes place at night in a dark forest, so you hardly see anything, and when you do see something, you're not sure what it is. Although the participants talk of wild erotic fantasies, what they actually do is pathetic, boring, and grim. Male masturbation, urinating, and getting whipped seem to be the extent of their perversions. You see several penises, none erect. Nobody seems to be having much fun at this orgy. Participating in it seems to be as unpleasant as watching it. Mostly, you see lots of people standing around doing nothing for long periods of time. It's supposed to be erotic, but the astonishing thing is: it's so boring!

The only reason I can think of for seeing this film is titillation. But you will see far more in a 3-minute clip on an internet porn site than you will find in this endless film. It's over two hours long, and feels more like 5. I give this film one star, for the costumes and makeup, which manage to make each male look uglier than the next. If being depraved and debauched offers such poor benefits, I think I will stay praved and bauched. Perhaps that's the director's intention.

\When the film started, the cinema was full. By the time it finished, there were only about 10 viewers left.

2 hours of watching depraved perverts in bad wigs having sex in the woods. That's it. That's the movie. Repulsive.