Liberté

On the impossibility of a 'utopia of desire'. Libertines gather in the dark outside the confines of normal society to engage in erotic activity, only to find themselves frustrated and/or humiliated and ultimately unfulfilled. While it's perhaps overlong, a common Serra failing, Liberte plays loose and free in a way that is rare in contemporary cinema, and it's less a commentary on the 'decadent aristocracy' than it is a sober reflection on failed contemporary mores.

(TIFF '19) What 'Salo' was to the depiction of sex as an allegory for fascistic control, Serra's stunningly captured, utterly surreal nighttime odyssey of 18th c. libertines throwing themselves into the throes of animalistic libertinage is to the aristocracy. Poupard captures the intense interplay of sexual exhibitionism and voyeurism in fragmentary ways that mystify: under the cover of trees, of shadows, of palanquins, of bodies on bodies as the rococo mise-en-scéne progressively decays.

Ok you got us, we're all a bunch of pervs in the bush

Feels like a Peter Greenaway movie stoned off its ass; while it lacks Greenaway's intelligence and vigour, to be able to simply observe it as a beautifully photographed art installation may well be enough intellectual food for thought for some, but the graphic sex acts on display become (deliberately?) comical in their grotesquerie by the mid-point. While explicit, there's not a shred of eroticism or even titillation at play here, which does lead you to wonder what Serra's intent is.

in this day and age, and as i see it, one could be considered quite a prude if one doesn't eat ass

I liked the setting, lightning, and Serra's own rhythm and framing, which all successfully contribute to the mood and the atmosphere. I also think that it's about today's pleasure driven hedonistic-nihilistic societies, and the impossibility of fulfilling that desire. Yet unlike his previous movies, I didn't see a search for any "beyond" in the images, nor a bigger whole than the parts. This could be the same movie in 90 minutes as well. I am disappointed.

I found it rather tame after all the warnings about its provocative nature in this day and age in with much more depraved stuff on any pornsite. The real discussion about this movie is if Serra really needs over 2 hours to say what he wants to say or that the movie gets way too repetitive. And if he has something to say at all or the movie is all about the experience of the night. In this later Serra succeeds tremendously, cause he knows damn well how to shoot and how long to hold a shot.

"Rexx"

Viewed September 29, 2019.