Mr. Freedom

William Klein moved into more blatantly political territory with this hilarious, vicious Vietnam-era lampoon of imperialist American foreign policy. Mr. Freedom (John Abbey), a bellowing good-ol'-boy superhero decked out in copious football padding, jets to France to cut off a Commie invasion from Switzerland. A destructive, arrogant patriot in tight pants, Freedom joins forces with Marie Madeleine (a satirically sexy Delphine Seyrig) to combat lefty freethinkers, as well as the insidious evildoers Moujik Man and inflatable Red China Man, culminating in a star-spangled showdown of kitschy excess. Delightfully crass, Mr. Freedom is a trenchant, rib-tickling takedown of gaudy modern Americana.

France
1969
92 minutes
Color
1.66:1
English

Available In

Collector's Set

The Delirious Fictions of William Klein

DVD Box Set

3 Discs

$35.96

Cast & Credits

Cast

Delphine Seyrig: Marie-Madeleine
John Abbey: Mr. Freedom
Donald Pleasance: Dr. Freedom
Jean-Claude Drouot: Dick Sensass
Serge Gainsbourg: Mr. Drugstore
Rufus: Freddie Fric
Philippe Noiret: Moujik Man
Sami Frey: Christ Man
Catherine Rouvel: Marie Rouge
Joe Détergent: Henry Pillsbury
Monique Chaumette: Virgin Mary
Rita Maïden: Chambermaid
Yves Montand: Captain Formidable

Credits

Director: William Klein
Producer: Guy Belfond
Screenplay: William Klein
Cinematography: Pierre Lhomme
Editing: Anne-Marie Cotret
Music: Serge Gainsbourg
Production design: William Klein
Costumes: Janine Klein
Costumes: William Klein

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K. K. Barrett’s Top 10

“These are ten films that tickle me in the right places,” says Academy Award–nominated production designer K. K. Barrett.

— Jun 26, 2014

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Delphine Seyrig

Actor

Thanks to the two most famous roles of her career—the enigmatic woman referred to only as A in Alain Resnais’ _Last Year at Marienbad_ and the middle-aged widow stuck in domestic routine in Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles—Delphine Seyrig is often thought of as an inscrutable performer. But this versatile French actress was also capable of great emotional immediacy and openness in her roles. The daughter of an archaeologist, Seyrig was a cosmopolite at a young age, having already lived in Lebanon, New York, and the south of France by the time she was twenty. She then studied acting in both France and the United States (at the Actors Studio). Her first screen performance was in the 1958 beat generation short Pull My Daisy, also featuring Jack Kerouac and Allan Ginsberg, shot in New York. A few years later, Last Year at Marienbad—in which Seyrig plays a woman wandering the fever-dream-like interior of a château, where she may or may not have been before—made her an icon of the French New Wave. She would go on appear in films by François Truffaut (Stolen Kisses, one of her most romantic parts), William Klein (she was never more delightfully off-kilter than in the satiric Mr. Freedom), Luis Buñuel (as the ever-gracious hostess in The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), Joseph Losey, Jacques Demy, Akerman, and other important film directors of the sixties and seventies. She died in 1990, at fifty-eight.