The Marquis de Sade was a man who liked to stir up trouble, at a time when his native France was in a state of tremendous political turmoil, and this historical drama examines how much controversy he could cause even under repressive circumstances. In the aftermath of the French Revolution, the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) manages to narrowly escape execution during the Reign of Terror, and instead is sentenced to the Charenton Asylum for the Insane. Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), the priest who
heads the asylum, is sympathetic to the political machinations that have put the Marquis in his care, and allows him not only to write what he pleases, but to stage theater pieces using the other patients as actors. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine), a tyrannical doctor overseeing the mental institutions of Napoleonic France, is as outraged as the emperor when he reads Justine, a scabrous volume the Marquis penned while an inmate at Charenton, and he demands that de Sade be stopped. But Royer-Collard soon learns that stopping the Marquis from writing is not so simple; when de Sade's quills and ink are taken from him, he uses wine and even his own blood to write his stories. When these options are no longer available, he dictates his work with the help of Madeline (Kate Winslet), a laundry girl working at the asylum, who is fascinated by the notorious de Sade, though she declines his frequent requests to satisfy his notorious sexual appetites. Based on the play by Doug Wright (who also penned the screenplay), Quills was directed by Philip Kaufman, who previously documented the line between eroticism and literature in Henry and June and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Philip Kaufman's biopic of the notorious Marquis de Sade is sharply uneven, by turns serious, poignant, trashy, sleazy and sensationslist, boasting an over-the-top turn from oscar-nominated Geoffrey Rush
An exhilarating, stunningly mounted, vigorously intelligent and oddly poetic tale also about the sadistic social institutions impinging on human history.
My love for this film runs very deep indeed. As a fan of the Marquis de Sade and everything spawned after his name, as well as an advocate for the the uncensored underbelly of the literary greats, this film possessed everything someone such as myself could hope for. Moments of genuine hilarity blunted by the brutish
historical truth, every single character in this film has a role to play and plays it magnificently. Rush is a superbly talented actor who never fails to keep my eyes on the screen and even Phoenix is acceptable as a preist with a naughty streak. A truly magnificent film.
September 22, 2011
Unknown Hobo
Super Reviewer
With a brilliant cast I did expect more from this. I'm unsure if she was going for a some sort of style, but Winslet looked like she couldn't act. Maybe that was just her character. Rush did a fantastic job as usual. I would have liked a better explanation to the beginning part. It seemed out of place compared to the
rest of the film.
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