The Libertine (1969 film)

The Libertine
Directed by	Pasquale Festa Campanile
Produced by	Silvio Clementelli executive Radly Metzger
Written by	Nicolò Ferrari, Ottavio Jemma
Starring	Catherine Spaak Jean-Louis Trintignant Gigi Proietti
Music by	Armando Trovajoli
Cinematography	Alfio Contini
Production company	Clesi Cinemtografica Finanziaria San Marco
Distributed by	Audubon Films
Release date	15 May 1969
Running time	90 mins
Language	Italian
Box office	128,378 admissions (France) $359,883 (Spain)

The Libertine (La Matriarca; a.k.a. The Matriarch) was a 1969 Italian film directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile.

This is a sex comedy film about Mimi (Catherine Spaak), a young widow who discovers that her recently deceased husband kept a secret apartment for his kinky desires. Frustrated that he did not explore his sexual fantasies with his wife, she embarks on a quest to understand perversion and sexuality. She uses her late husband's apartment to seduce various men, each time learning more about the depths of human pleasure, as well as the extent of the sexual double standard for women (late in the film, she states, "I notice men only call me a whore when I say no. Or stop saying yes."

Finally, she meets the man who shares himself fully with her, appreciates her sexual daring and accepts her for whoever she is.

The New York Times said the film was "not nearly as clever, sophisticated and amusing as it archly pretends." The Guardian called it "pseudo-sophisiticated, so fake as to be positively sick making and, what is more, thoroughly unerotic." The Washington Post complained "the film's own attitudes are far too conventional". The Los Angeles Times thought the movie was "at times... pretty hot stuff... has a little more style and wit than most Radley Metzger releases." The Chicago Tribune thought the film was "more clumsy than clever... just as unimaginative as the film it attempts to parody."