Lady Libertine Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Lady Libertine Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 23, 2017

Gérard Kikoïne's "Lady Libertine" (1984) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Intervision Picture Corp. The supplemental features on the disc include a collection of deleted scenes; new video interview with director Gerard Kikoine; and filmed introduction from Fantasia Film Festival. In English, without optional English SDH subtitles. Region-Free.

Frank

Gerard Kikoine's Lady Libertine appears in this double-feature release together with the director’s earlier film Love Circles. Both were produced by the prolific Harry Alan Towers in the early ‘80s and were shown on the Playboy Channel.

Lady Libertine is a much more elaborate production than Love Circles and certainly better polished, but I found the latter to be a lot more enjoyable to watch. Lady Libertine genuinely attempts to tell a good and engaging story, but with these types of late night films more often than not this seems to be a serious flaw.

In the opening sequence the handsome but single aristocrat Charles de Beaumont (Christopher Pearson) encounters a beautiful girl disguised as a boy (Jennifer Inch) on the run from someone and brings her back to his mansion. The two quickly develop a strong bond, but it takes a long time for Charles to realize that Frank is actually Frances and then discover that she is a former courtesan. When Frances’ secret is revealed, Charles also decides to indefinitely keep her in the mansion because he can’t get enough of her lovely body.

Eventually, Charles visits the brothel where Frances used to work and discovers that the madam that runs it is an evil chameleon who has abused many of her girls. Then he finds a way to give her a nice dose of her own medicine and before he leaves reveals that Frances has become a lady. While visiting London, Charles also frequently stops at the cozy apartment of an old lover (Sophie Favier) and eventually introduces her to Frances. The two beauties quickly warm up to each other and enthusiastically engage in all sorts of different erotic games with Charles, but at the end settles down with Frances and vows to become a a faithful husband.

The plot is as silly as it sounds and with some pretty ridiculous twists, but these types of films almost always struggle to be believable and exciting at the same time. So anyone expecting an intelligent story with authentic characters from Lady Libertine will almost certainly be gravely disappointed.

The main attraction in Lady Libertine are the two female stars and Kikoine does not even pretend to hide that this is in fact the case. However, this seems a bit odd and not because it is unexpected, but because there is a lot of footage that is wasted for the meaningless twists that I mentioned earlier. A much more straightforward erotic film (not explicit adult film) would have almost certainly turned out to be far better.

There is a long and interesting interview with Kikoine on this release in which he discusses in great detail the production history of Lady Libertine and reveals that he is very proud of the work that he did on it with cinematographer Gérard Loubeau. I would agree that it is a better looking and perhaps more sophisticated film than Love Circles, but it is certainly not the sexier of the two. (Kikoine also mentions some quite serious story involving Favier, but the drama seems incredibly overblown. She looks elegant, classy and very much at ease with her character).

Lady Libertine Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Gerard Kikoïne's Lady Libertine arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Intervision Picture Corp.

The quality of the presentation is very similar to that of Love Circles. There are some minor specks and a few tiny scratches early on, but other than that the film has a healthy and all-around pleasing organic appearance. Well-lit close-ups and the daylight footage boast nice depth and definition is quite good. Some of the darker footage from the brothel, however, exhibits light black crush that eliminates some nuances. Still, there are no distracting anomalies that will affect your viewing experience. Colors are stable and healthy. Overall image stability is good. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Lady Libertine Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are not provided for the main feature.

As it was the case with Love Circles a lossless track would have been preferable, but depth and clarity actually remain very pleasing throughout the entire film. This leads me to believe that the master for this film is already quite good and it was only a matter of encoding the audio track properly, but to have a lossless track the label probably would have had to have two Blu-ray discs (one for Lady Libertine and one for Love Circles). Fluidity and stability are also surprisingly good.

Lady Libertine Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes - a collection of deleted scenes without audio. (2 min).

• Interview - presented here is a long and very interesting interview with director Gerard Kikoine in which he discusses his relationship with Harry Alan Towers and the production histories of Lady Libertine and Love Circles. The director also has some very interesting comments about Sophie Berger and the controversy she was a part of and Tony Perkins (Edge of Sanity). In French, with optional English subtitles. (27 min).

• Gerard Kikoïne Introduces Lady Libertine at Fantasia Film Festival - Gerard Kikoïne explains how he transitioned from the adult business (he shot 22 films during the '70s and '80s) to the mainstream film business and discusses the production history of Lady Libertine. The introduction was filmed at Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada, in July 2016. In French, with optional English subtitles. (19 min).

Lady Libertine Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I hope that Intervision Picture Corp. will continue to add some older erotic titles to their catalog as these types of films are essentially ignored by U.S. distributors. (Vinegar Syndrome are the lonely exception, but they focus on more explicit films). From the two films that are included on this release I prefer Love Circles because it is also very funny. The technical presentation is good and there are some surprisingly interesting interviews with director Gérard Kikoïne. RECOMMENDED.