Palaest recommended

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

lazarillo Depending on your taste, this French movie could be considered either as a raunchy French comedy with arty pretensions or as Gallic-flavored Merchant-Ivory type fare with a refreshing lack of them. The story involves real-life 18th century French "philosoph", Denis Diderot, who is holed up with a bunch of his equally jaded family and friends on the luxurious estate of his friend Baron D'Holbach where he is working on a scandalous encyclopedia propounding his libertine philosophy. When D'Holbach's brother (Michael Serrault), a prominent cardinal, shows up unexpectedly, D'Holbach's wife (Josiane Basko) and Diderot's other various friends try to distract the clergyman from what is really going on at the estate.This is set in the same era as "Dangerous Liasons" (and also the era of the Marquis de Sade), but for better or worse it is much less serious than the various films based on that literary work. It isn't quite the unbridled sex romp you'd expect for a French film set in this free and loose era. Most of the ribaldry involves Diderot, under the somewhat reproachful gaze of his wife, posing nude for an attractive female painter (Fanny Arnadt). There is some casual adultery mostly involving a promiscuous female party guest (Arielle Dombasle). The sexiest scenes though are undoubtedly the ones where Diderot's daughter (Vahina Giocante) and D'Holbach's daughter (a pre-"Amelie" Audrey Tatou) take a hot tub soak together, or the scene where Diderot's relatively prudish wife (Francoise Lepine) receives a "happy ending" from a studly African masseuse. But this movie is much more raunchy comedy than sex. It's kind of comedy of manners but with no manners.Vincent Perez is quite good as Diderot, as is Josiane Balasko as the Madame D'Holbach, and Michael Serrault as the cardinal. Francoise Lepine is also pretty good, even though she largely disappeared after this movie. And Fanny Arnadt is ALWAYS worth watching. Tatou and Gicante, meanwhile, have little to do but peel off for their hot tub scene, but actually that is PLENTY. This movie is pretty lightweight, but it's also a pretty fun watch.

Shaolin_Apu This movie does not really tell what Diderot was for. Everything what it contains is about the primal reactions what his ideas engineered for and how the current morals, which were supervised by the Church, did not fit into them. The real Diderot was a part of some much larger picture than just sexual morals of the French upper class. The knowledge what the 18th century philosophers wanted to represent was equally against the Upper Class as it was against over-dominant Church.'Le Libertin' has a good pick of French top actors, but those who want to see this only for Audrey Tautou's famous part may find that thing indifferent. The movie is full of various sexual matters but anyway it is all how it was back in the 18th century, and so every idea that is about sex in the film is also historically very accurate and well crafted indeed.

richard-wheeler A French film set in France in 1789 when the encyclopedia was banned. This was a historical comedy filled with sex, religion and frontal nudity! It was about a man named Denis Diderot (Vincent Perez) who was the creator of the encyclopedia. His wife, Madame Diderot (Francoise Lepine) and his daughter Angelique Diderot (Vahina Giocante). And Audrey Tautou starred as Julie d'Holbach. This movie was filled with extremely funny moments, the funniest ones were; the "Pig Organ", they were pulled by their tails to create a melody. I was impressed with that. Next, was when Diderot got a boner when seeing Madame Therbouche (Fanny Ardant) while she was painting a portrait of him naked. " Growing start of steadfastness". A cute scene with Baronne d'Holbach (Josiane Balasko) walking her pet pig on a leash and it was dressed up. And lastly, an Adam and Eve scene with Mr Diderot chasing his wife around the garden naked with the Baroness and Le cardinal (Michel Sarrault), the very dramatic one watching.And then, the Cardinal sniffed table salts and the Baroness says:" I feel queasy! I need fresh air!" HA!HA!HA!There was a terrible scene with the Baroness's pig cooked up as a lunch and she replaced her pig a canary. SHAME! There were also some LOVELY things to see in this film like, the Turkish baths and messages. Beautiful. And the party thrown for the Cardinal with dance music, fire works and wine. Quite something. And at the end, Diderot FELL IN LOVE WITH MADAME THERBOUCHE!!! Uh-oh!It's lovely to see, hear and have conversations in French. Fun movie! With dance music!

signed_alias This movie had the potential to be so much more with such an ensemble cast and premise. Unfortunately, from the first minutes of the movie onward, it becomes quickly self-evident that the movie is a pretentious and failed attempt at trying to be a smart comedy.The acting was over the top, the dialog mediocre and the characters unbelievable. The humour used in the movie was only successful in a rare few instances. Mostly it just falls short of being funny and quickly becomes just plain annoying. And that's without going into the contrived twists and turns of the plot. The closing credits were a welcome relief to a very disappointing movie.