The Libertine (1968 film)

The Libertine (La matriarca) is a 1968 Italian sex comedy film directed by Pasquale Festa Campanile and starring Catherine Spaak and Jean-Louis Trintignant.

Plot
Mimi, a young widow, discovers that her recently deceased husband kept a secret apartment for his kinky desires. Frustrated that he did not explore his sexual fantasies with her, 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 depravation, 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.

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