Libertine (1969) from Tuna
The Libertine (1969), aka La Matriarca, is an Italian made "Eurotica" distributed in the US by Radley Metzger. It is the story of a young widow who discovers that her husband had an apartment dedicated to carnal kinks and pleasures, complete with home movies, costumes, mirrored rooms, stereo, etc. She decides to learn what it is all about, and has numerous adventures with such as her husbands business partner, her best friend's husband, a tennis instructor, a stranger, and finally her radiologist. In the end, she discovers what her true kink is and finds happiness.

NUDITY REPORT
see the main commentary

DVD info from Amazon.

  • widescreen format
The film is mostly teases, but does show breasts and buns fro star Catherine Spaak, veteran of 53 films. Opposite her is Jean-Louis Trintignant, whom you may remember from the original "The Man Who Loved Women." Several other women exposed breasts, mostly on the home movies, but the transfer of this DVD, which is abysmal, and the fact that the home movies were deliberately degraded in the original, made them not worth the effort. Many of the images below were taken from the original trailer and from out-takes. The US version was edited, supposedly to help the pace, but it seems they also toned down the exposure somewhat.

Frankly, this is probably only of interest to those who are fascinated by the history of erotica in film. The tone is light, but so is the exposure, and the so called "kinks" were rather mild.

The Critics Vote

  • no major reviews online

The People Vote ...

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, as historical erotica, it is a C, with no cross-over appeal whatsoever. 

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