A 3-hour French TV movie about a 16th-century monk who invented dirty jokes? Absolument.
Sensual, facetious, satirical and mocking, François Rabelais born at the end of the 15th century, alone embodies the Middle Ages, this fertile era from which the modern world emerged, and the spirit of research, of intellectual fever of the Renaissance, its enthusiasms and its aspirations.
Acting
Bernadette Lafont's final screen role—sly, earthy, unforgettable.
Production
Surprisingly lush for TV; they spent the budget on books and brothels.
Director
Hervé Baslé
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was one of Bernadette Lafont's final performances before her death in 2013; she was a Nouvelle Vague icon who started with Truffaut.
Rabelais's work was banned by the Sorbonne and placed on the Catholic Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum—this film barely scratches the obscenity that made him famous.
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