This was apparently pretty hot stuff back in 1968, though by the standards of modern films, it's a very tame exploration into the erotic world by a sexually constricted widow. My review is based on the DVD and I read one review that says that the videotape actually is more explicit and has a better print! Technically, it's a well made and acted film, though I am sure it's not a film for everyone's taste since the content is very sexual. While this might be excellent viewing for couples, it's not a film you'd want to show the kiddies!! A young and attractive widow is seen at her husband's funeral. Despite his sudden and unexpected death, the woman finds herself feeling nothing. She knows she SHOULD feel sad, but comes to realize that their three-year marriage was a tad dull. Shortly after this realization, she learns that her husband had another apartment that he never mentioned to her! It turns out this is a place where he had a lot of affairs--with himself and his partners being filmed having sex and involving themselves in sado-masochism!! Instead of feeling outraged, this widow found herself fascinated and through the course of the film she decided to experiment sexually. She has a large number of sexual encounters (some of which MUST have been a lot wilder than the stuff on the DVD because late in the movie, she shows a man film of herself at an orgy--something not mentioned before). All this is pretty meaningless and hollow to the lady--as she doesn't seem all that satisfied by this wild life. And, surprisingly, in the end she discovers a funny way to make her new marriage both wild yet amazingly conventional--blending the best of both her old life and the new.

As for me, I liked the film generally, but there was something that I found pretty wacky and a tad disturbing. While a dull sex life is something the film preaches against, the viewer might think that the only things a couple might do to "spice things up" is engage in sado-masochism or "pony rides" (you'd really have to see the film to understand this bizarre fetish). It's a real shame, as there are so many options for spicing up your relationship other than slapping the crap out of your partner!! I truly hope people didn't take this message too seriously! Finally, once again, I should point out that this is NOT a film for the kids! But, considering it isn't really a porn film but actually has an interesting plot and some humor about it, it may be a film for you. It certainly isn't for all tastes.

Armando Trovajoli's theme music to this is freaking amazing. There's a vocal and instrumental version and I love them both. Seek them out on youtube. Catherine Spaak is equally amazing. The perfect blend of high art mixed with air-headed goofiness here. America was never able to reach this goal. Not even with Joe Sarno. There's gonna be scathing critics who claim early 70s sex comedies were misogynistic and making light of rape culture. But of course had we not gone through the process of confronting our own sexuality on screen, both good and bad. we'd never have the perspective we do now on human psychology as a whole. It's easy for people to stand on top of the tower and look down in judgement on the people at the bottom. When they were the same ones who protested its creation in the first place. Never once does this film condone angry violence towards woman as a good thing. And Spaak is so successful in showcasing her talent and beauty, as she goes from one great outfit to the other, we let go of the nearly non existent plot and simply go along for the ride. And a very fun ride it is. Even with past tragedy lurking underneath. It's answers to life's problems are crude and simple, that only work for some people, (let go, be kinky and have fun) but it does acknowledge them. And it doesn't try to hide its head in the sand the way some screwball comedies (or superheroes and fantasies for that matter) would tend to take you.

TRUE LOVE conquers all. At least it did in "The Libertine". Meanwhile, a restless young widow skips in and out of various sexual encounters, real and imagined, before meeting her match in a steady, plain-spoken radiologist.

The singularly sex-minded Italian film is not nearly as clever, sophisticated and amusing as it archly pretends. For all the worldly trimmings—slick color photography, careful interspersions of nudity and a general tone of coy blandness — the picture is no wiser than the Farmer's Almanac. And not nearly so honest.

The idea of a neglected wife suddenly flitting around strenuously until she sees the light is certainly an old one. And it takes a little while to see through the slickly ornate facade of this exercise, very friskily directed by Pasquale Festa-Campanile and with the pert Catherine Spaak as the experimental heroine.

Rummaging through various sexual data in a luxurious, hideaway apartment kept by her late husband, she airily proceeds to make up for neglect and lost time with an assortment of partners. One is her husband's best friend. Another is a dentist. Add a tennis player. Add a grinning plumber, and a nameless sadist who cuffs her around.

The final chapter, Miss Spaak's lengthy stalking of the somber radiologist, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, has a flip geniality and some genuine brightness. The two performers carry it off with easy charm. If the rest of the picture had this, the sexual preoccupation might have been less monotonous and obvious. There might even have been a real point.