Liberte takes this a very significant step farther, initially laying out its conceits at the very beginning linking the voyeuristic desire of these characters to watch these acts play out with the voyeurism of us as viewers ourselves watching the film and by extension, the same acts the characters watch and partake in. This might make more sense later, but I recall not understanding Serra's Louis XIV film until discovering he was a big fan of Brian De Palma, and I realized that it was a film about the relationship between spectacle and subservience. In retrospect however, it struck me as relaxed, if not (and no pun intended) - free? It's the rare film that devotes itself almost entirely to giving itself time to breathe, and as a result becomes what's probably the apex of what Serra is trying to do with his cinema: free space and free time to think but also to immerse yourself, or rather both at once. It's easy to wonder if Liberté might be more successful in installation form, and initially it struck me as unnecessarily long.

Watching Liberté, I was reminded of Martin Scorsese's odd quote about why he didn't like Renoir's The Rules of The Game - 'I could never relate to it.I guess because I wasn't from that class.' With all respect to Scorsese it's an amusing quote, mostly because there's nothing one need relate too in order to understand Rules of the Game - in the same way I find myself in increasing admiration of Serra's Liberté, a radical and beautiful work that's the director's finest film thus far, even though I've never taken part in an orgy in the forest.

Free for mac instal Liberte