Review: Liberté

by Chris Feil

Cineastes missing human touch might find an antidote in Albert Serra’s Liberté, another gallery-ready period piece from the Catalan filmmaker. The film is a barrage of increasingly queasy, bewigged kinky fumblings in the woods with the director audaciously exploring the repetitive nature of lust.

Set just prior to the French Revolution, Liberté opaquely follows a set of libertines who have been banished from the king’s court. Opening on the fringes of a forrest at dusk, the voice of one of them describes the public torture and dismemberment of a prisoner in brutal detail. The story goes beyond the biologically possible, the telling centering as much on the violence as the response from those who witness it. “The crowd enjoyed the show,” he muses, “and you know, I have a taste for these things.” As this grotesque story preambles for the audience, the film's extremity is as much about voyeurism to the act as the act itself.

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Taste the Blood of Showbiz History

5 random things that happened on this day in showbiz history...

1941 Citizen Kane has its world premiere in NYC

1969 Wes Anderson born in Houston, Texas

1970 Happy 50th anniversary to Hammer Horror's Taste the Blood of Dracula starring Christopher Lee which opened on this day.

1998 Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke get hitched, two days after Uma's 28th birthday and two months before the birth of their daughter Maya (who is now an actress, see Stranger Things season 3). They had co-starred in the previous year's sci-fi drama Gattaca and will make two more films together (Chelsea Walls and Tape) as well as a second child before separating in 2003 - a very big year for Uma, professionally. Yes Uma has been on our brains this week.

2000 Gladiator has its world premiere in Los Angeles before opening nationwide the following weekend and becoming an enormous hit. Later it competed for Best Picture at the big awards show and when the envelope was opened it was always...

GLADIATOR!"

April. It's a Wrap

While April was late to arrive, given that March lasted 4 years as we all adjusted to the new world over, it was over in a flash. In case you missed any herewith a baker's dozen to highlight this past month on The Film Experience. We're working hard behind the scenes to make May truly extra so please support us with clicks, shares, follows, and subscriptions.

Most Popular / Discussed
• April Foolish Predictions - Best Picture contenders?
• Frances vs Sophie revisiting the grandiose Best Actress Battle of 1982
• Pedro's Quarantine Almodóvar reminisces about meeeting Madonna
• Emmy Predictions in all the major categories
• Oscar Rule Changes streaming + sound + international film
• Sondheim's 90s Birthday - Meryl Streep, Raúl Esparza, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sutton Foster and other divas toasted the GOAT. Moving moments galore
• The Smackdown Returns 1981 is up next!
• 5 Reasons the Oscars Won't be Cancelled we're hopeful

More Highlights
• Doc Corner Tiger King - a disturbing mess 
• In defense of The Artist - not a typical or bland Oscar choice
• Shirley Knight (RIP) the fine character actress has passed away
• Dune (2020) our first few glimpses of Denis Villeneuve's adaptation
• Choose Your Quarantine House -the cinephile edition of the meme

Coming in May
We'll discuss the Netflix series Hollywood, have not one but TWO Supporting Actress Smackdowns (1981 and 1947), review the new films Liberté, How to Build a Girl, celebrate movie pets, and more. 

Emmy Watch: Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Can someone from Space Force, like John Malkovich, storm in with a relatively sparse field of players?

Comedy isn’t as crowded as drama this awards season, in part because more than half of last year’s nominees in the race aren’t eligible this time around, and there’s no wave of returning nominees set to automatically refill those slots. Henry Winkler, Anthony Carrigan and Stephen Root will all need to wait for whenever Barry premieres its third season. Two-time winner Tony Hale (Veep) won’t be back because his show ended. That leaves just two potential consecutive returning nominees, and it would be a big surprise if either of them missed: defending champion Tony Shalhoub (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) and Alan Arkin (The Kominsky Method). They could easily be joined by a handful of eligible past nominees if voters are feeling nostalgic

The past four years...

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Cast This: Disney's Live-Action Hercules

by Nathaniel R

Disney still has lots of animated features to get through before they've made animated or live-action remakes or spinoffs of each of 'em. Word is they're now developing Hercules (1997) but then they're developing lots of these things to follow Mulan (2020) and Cruella (2021) into movie theaters.

Hopefully Hercules Redux gets some new songs because there aren't a lot as we recall and there's only so much of a score you can build from "Go the Distance". This will live or die based on how funny it is so we hope they lean heavily into its more camp aspects: bodybuilder lead, five muses, flamboyant villain. 

How would you cast this thing? More after the jump...

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