Liberty (1986 film) Liberty (1986 film) Liberty is a television film which aired on NBC on June 23, 1986. It is a largely fictionalized account of the construction of the Statue of Liberty, which had been completed 100 years earlier. Scenes were shot on location in Paris and Baltimore. Sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (Frank Langella) and author Édouard de Laboulaye (Jean-Pierre Cassel) agree to create a monument to present to the United States on behalf of the French people. Bartholdi searches for a model, approaching (and romancing) young woman Jeanne Baheau (Corinne Touzet) for the body of the statue, and deciding to use
Statue of Liberty American public works—the selection of Italian-born Constantino Brumidi to decorate the Capitol had provoked intense criticism, even though he was a naturalized U.S. citizen. "Harper's Weekly" declared its wish that "M. Bartholdi and our French cousins had 'gone the whole figure' while they were about it, and given us statue and pedestal at once." "The New York Times" stated that "no true patriot can countenance any such expenditures for bronze females in the present state of our finances." Faced with these criticisms, the American committees took little action for several years. The foundation of Bartholdi's statue was to be laid