Pourvu qu'elles soient douces

Gilles Laurent participated in the writing of the screenplay.[6] Directed by Laurent Boutonnat, the video was shot for five days in the forest, in Rambouillet (France).[7] It was censored on television because of its depiction of female nudity - Farmer in particular - and sex. It is entitled "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces - Libertine II" because it was a continuation of "Libertine",[8] and takes place during the Seven Years' War, in the 18th century. Some excerpts were shown in exclusivity on 12 September 1988 in the French television program Nulle Part Ailleurs, on Canal+.

It appeared in the Book of Records in 1989 because it was at the time the music video the most expensive —at the time, it was announced that it cost more than 3 million francs (€450,000);[9][10] however, subsequent sources said it was a mistake, as it cost about 1,5 million francs[11] (€225,000)[7] — the longest (17:52)[12] and with the most of extras (circa 600).[13] Many of them were made available by the French Army. Some were committed and recruits who benefited from a week of holiday, although they had much work during the shooting.[7] Jean-François Casamayou, the director of CasaFilms, provided cranes, loumas, steady-cams and many other technical materials. There were about 50 technicians.[11]

The horse used in the video by Farmer was borrowed from Mario Luraschi, a specialist in film stunts, which had a farm at the Abbey of Chaalis, France. The Andalusian white horse was called Llamado and was then nine years old.[14] Farmer remade many times the scene with her galloping horse and finally succeeded;[15] however, the dangerous scenes were performed by a stuntman.[16] There was a lack of costumes, and those obtained were quite worn from having been used in more than 20 films about the French Revolution; this could jeopardize the production.[14] The costume designer Carinne Sarfati and her team darned uniforms used by actors playing in the video. The editor of Tradition Magazine, Jean-Louis Viau, was responsible for ensuring the historical reality of the video and to avoid anachronisms,[11] and taught the extras to handle weapons of the 18th century.[17] Farmer, who shows her breasts and her buttocks in the video, said she was a little intimidated by the nudity scenes, and was afraid of commentaries by technicians, but that finally all happened very well.[16] Yann Babilee, who played the role of the English officer, explained in an interview that he was immediately charmed by the screenplay of the music video.[18]

The scene takes place on 18 August 1757. A young English drummer discovers the still body of Libertine, covered in blood. He calls William, an older soldier, who believes that Libertine is a man, while the young boy says she is a girl. Soon they realize that she is alive and take her to the camp for treatment. Meanwhile, the captain of the British Army realizes that his troops have taken the wrong road and are in France rather than being in Prussia (the words, in English, are subtitled in French language). Then, as the song begins, the captain brings a fruit bowl to Libertine who is sleeping in a tent. With his whip, he raises the sheet to look at her buttocks, but the young drummer enters the tent and surprises him doing that. To punish him, the captain flogs him in front of many other soldiers. He then hands the whip over to Libertine, who has been awakened by the noise, expecting her to also flog the boy, but instead she turns and whips the captain's face. In the tent, the man, very angry, throws some clothes to Libertine and looks at her when she undresses. Then she breaks a bottle over his head and runs away on horseback. The captain pursues her, finds her lying hurt near a tree, and carries her in his arms back to the camp. While they make love, the rival of Libertine, in connivance with the French army, brings prostitutes in the camp to distract the British troops. The next day, the French army bombards the English camp, while the rival shoots the captain and kills him. Libertine, who watches the scene, fights and eventually kills her with a bayonet. As the burning camps are left filled with dead bodies scattered on the ground, Libertine picks up the young drummer, while the soldiers of the French army watch them leaving on horseback.[19]

The video shows some daring scenes, and ends with very violent scenes showing killing by gunshot and sword, as well as blood and dead bodies.

Initially, the video was to be shown in previews in movie theatres, but it was eventually cancelled because the film producers were afraid that the video was better than the film aired then.[20] However, the video was broadcast as an exclusivity on 6 October 1988 on the Champs-Élysées, at the UGC Normandie.[9][21] The video was nominated at the 1989 Victoires de la Musique, but did not win.

Some scenes, including the slow images filmed in low-angle shots which show drunk infantrymen running after scantily clad prostitutes, and wine flowing over topless prostitutes who are cavorting on the ground, were removed when the video was presented in prime time on television.[22]

To the author Erwan Chuberre, it was a "disproportionate masterpiece for a music video and marked the spirits and the majority of journalists present at the preview (...) were won over". Other journalists were "outraged by the many images of nudity".[21] According to the biographer Bernard Violet, the video was a "triumph" when it was released because of its production as well as its subject.[22] The psychologist Hugues Royer considered the video as a "historical masterpiece, written as a real short movie".[23] French magazine Graffiti awarded it as the "video of the year".[24]