Quills (2000)

QUILLS
------

An aristocrat during the French Revolution who spent over half his life in prison, the Marquis de Sade, whose actions and literary works resulted in the coining of the word 'sadism,' has been praised by some as a genius and vilified by others as a pornographer. Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush ("Shine") stars as the Marquis during his later years spent in the Charenton insane asylum supported by his wife, befriended by the Abbe Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix, "Gladiator"), bedevilled by Napoleon's emissary Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine) and in love with a teenage laundress (Kate Winslett).

Doug Wright has adapted his own off-Broadway play and together with director Philip Kaufman, ("The Right Stuff," "Henry and June") explores the nature of the artist and the effects of repression in "Quills."

LAURA:

The art of writing isn't the most visual one, yet Kaufman, who tackled writers before in "Henry and June," succeeds with his provoking film "Quills." Maybe its because he's chosen authors of controversial works laden with sex, but here, at least, his film works because it gets his audience thinking - does the reading of De Sade's books cause humans to behave badly or does the censorship of his work create the evil atmosphere?

Kaufman startles us right at the onset of his film. As the Marquis tells the tale of a noblewoman with a taste for pain, we see that woman responding to the hands and kiss of her lover. Slowly, we realize that that man is an executioner and that we are seeing a woman at the guillotine just as De Sade is, gazing out of his prison window. (The guillotine really was moved behind a jail when the Parisians began complaining about the smell.)

De Sade, who was arrested for sodomy and kidnapping before his writing landed him in trouble, spent his last years in an insane asylum because his wife's family preferred that to prison. He had a well furnished room, dined well, put on theatrical productions and was visitted by the Abbe Coulmier. However, when his most notorious novel, 'Justine,' (smuggled out by laundress Madeleine (Kate Winslet) in this film) made its way into the hands of Napoleon, Antoine Royer-Collard (Michael Caine), an alienist, was sent to observe the asylum and its most notorious inmate. When De Sade's quills and ink were taken away, he resorts to chicken bones and red wine and later to his own body.

Wright plays with historical fact in that Coulmier was really a four foot tall hunchback and little is known of the real Magdeleine except that she visitted the Marquis. Here a love triangle is created and it's an effective device because it shows that good (Madeleine) can be exposed to evil and remain untouched yet evil (De Sade's writings) is inherent in all men (Coulmier). The film's climatic tragedy, where De Sade tells a new story to Madeleine like a game of telephone, illustrates that Royer-Collard's repressive actions have set the stage for disaster.

Rush revels in naughtily tweaking the saintly Abbe and exposing the self-righteous Royer-Collard but he can become scary, allowing darkness to wash over his face, even as we're laughing at his latest quip. It's a charged performance. Winslet is delicious as the curious laundry girl. She does devilishly juicy readings of De Sade's work (invented for the film) yet has an apple cheeked purity about her. Phoenix, who's shaping into a really good actor, gradually changes from a good and innocent Abbe to a tormented man wrestling with lust. Caine, beautifully introduced by Kaufman from behind the head of a man being tortured in a dunking machine, turns in a bland performance as the brutal doctor.

Support includes Amelia Warner ("Mansfield Park") as Royer-Collards' child bride, whose sexuality is unleashed by reading the forbidden De Sade, but with another man. She's a pretty girl, but this subplot does little for the film other than to gratify by seeing Royer-Collard cuckholded. Rush' wife, stage actress Jane Menelaus, plays De Sade's wife and makes us feel her character's frustration. Michael Jenn ("The Messenger"), Danny Babington, George Yiasoumi "Elizabeth," and Stephen Marcus ("Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels") all create unique inmates. The great Billie Whitelaw has been given little to work with as the blind mother of Madeleine.

The film feels claustrophobic, as the imprisonment of a theatrical writer should, although the monochromatic palette is somewhat dull. Costume (Jacqueline West, "Pulp Fiction") is notable from the sexy draping of the Abbe's robes to the buxom milkmaid look given to Madeleine.

While "Quills" is provocative, relatively little sex and nudity are shown. "Quills" is a movie about words and ideas that will make you think.

B+

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