Quills (2000)
Country: US/GER
Technical: col 124m
Director: Philip Kaufman
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw
Synopsis:
The Marquis de Sade smuggles his novel Justine out of the asylum at Charenton thanks to the good offices of his launderess, and the emperor despatches man of science-cum-torturer, Royer Collard, to 'cure' him of his sickness.
Review:
This horrific, comic, erotic fantasy based on fact employs much the same overripe style as Sade's own prose, thus succeeding in making him filmable in the only way currently conceivable. The film can moreover be read on different levels: as a pamphlet against censorship at all costs (self-expression will out in increasingly gross and disastrous forms and the censor's scissors are besides invariably the instrument of the hypocrite - Kaufman indeed makes them a murder weapon here), and conversely as grim proof of the power of art to corrupt the mentally vulnerable or naturally inclined, as well as entertain the sane and open-minded. Production values are fine indeed, and at the service of a witty script and gripping central performances.
Country: US/GER
Technical: col 124m
Director: Philip Kaufman
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw
Synopsis:
The Marquis de Sade smuggles his novel Justine out of the asylum at Charenton thanks to the good offices of his launderess, and the emperor despatches man of science-cum-torturer, Royer Collard, to 'cure' him of his sickness.
Review:
This horrific, comic, erotic fantasy based on fact employs much the same overripe style as Sade's own prose, thus succeeding in making him filmable in the only way currently conceivable. The film can moreover be read on different levels: as a pamphlet against censorship at all costs (self-expression will out in increasingly gross and disastrous forms and the censor's scissors are besides invariably the instrument of the hypocrite - Kaufman indeed makes them a murder weapon here), and conversely as grim proof of the power of art to corrupt the mentally vulnerable or naturally inclined, as well as entertain the sane and open-minded. Production values are fine indeed, and at the service of a witty script and gripping central performances.
Country: US/GER
Technical: col 124m
Director: Philip Kaufman
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw
Synopsis:
The Marquis de Sade smuggles his novel Justine out of the asylum at Charenton thanks to the good offices of his launderess, and the emperor despatches man of science-cum-torturer, Royer Collard, to 'cure' him of his sickness.
Review:
This horrific, comic, erotic fantasy based on fact employs much the same overripe style as Sade's own prose, thus succeeding in making him filmable in the only way currently conceivable. The film can moreover be read on different levels: as a pamphlet against censorship at all costs (self-expression will out in increasingly gross and disastrous forms and the censor's scissors are besides invariably the instrument of the hypocrite - Kaufman indeed makes them a murder weapon here), and conversely as grim proof of the power of art to corrupt the mentally vulnerable or naturally inclined, as well as entertain the sane and open-minded. Production values are fine indeed, and at the service of a witty script and gripping central performances.