Les fleurs du mal
5.4
Charles Baudelaire was one of the giants of 19th-century French poetry, and he earned his position among that nation's luminaries through the poems in one slim volume, entitled Les Fleurs du Mal (Flowers of Evil). A perfectionist to the extreme, he struggled with every word of those few poems for many years before he consented to see them published. When he did, six of them were condemned by the state censors as obscene. It was surely a powerful blow to him to have such a significant part of his life's work so rudely suppressed. This courtroom drama follows him at the 1857 trial at which he defended his works. The filmmaker has chosen to symbolically re-enact certain poems about the love of a woman as they are being read for the court. It is easy to imagine that, as was certainly the case for the trial of Oscar Wilde in England, this courtroom trial was a form of punishment for his publicly dissolute lifestyle.
Where to watch
Not streaming anywhere
Not on any streaming service in United States, and not available to rent.
Your rating
Your review
Cast
17 people
Antoine Duléry
Baudelaire
Known for
Camping
The Bonfire of Destiny
Jean-Marie Lemaire
Procureur Pinard
Known for
Fascination
Gabriela Cerqueira
Charles Baudelaire
Jean-Pierre Rawson
Also in
The Garden of Torment
Patrice-Flora Praxo
Jeanne Duval
Also in
Time to Kill
Les Cœurs brûlés
António da Cunha Telles
Also in
Lisboa no Cinema, Um Ponto de Vista
Chamo-me António da Cunha Telles
Marianne Assouline
Mme Sabatier
Also in
Softly from Paris
Eliane Piliego
Claude Aufaure
Abbé Richard
Known for
Napoleon
Betty Blue
Jean-Claude Bolle-Reddat
Boissard
Known for
The New Girlfriend
Ricky
Yan Brian
Bourdin
Known for
Sexual Chronicles of a French Family
My Father the Hero
Jean-Pierre Rawson Director · Charles Baudelaire Author Jean-Noël Chaleat Composer
First release November 13, 1991 · Produced in France · Production Francis Dreyfus Musique, StudioCanal
Production
Canal+
Production
Francis Dreyfus Musique
Production
StudioCanal
Production
France
Produced in
Languages
Original language
French
Spoken on screen
French
Release dates
France · November 13, 1991
Theatrical
No release date listed for United States.
More from Jean-Pierre Rawson
Other films they directed, best known first.
If you liked Les fleurs du mal
Picks that share its genres, themes, cast and crew.
Some details come from TheTVDB.