Quills
From the subject of this film, the Marquis De Sade, one might expect a movie about the perversion for which he is reputed. The movie is actually more concerned with freedom of speech and the need to express oneself.
The film began with the Marquis (played by Geoffrey Rush) while he witnessed the bloodbath of the French Revolution. Perhaps because of this trauma, he became an inmate in a French insane asylum. At first, he led a comfortable existence. But his one escape was his writing, which provided him an outlet for his "demons." A housekeeper at the asylum, Madeleine (Kate Winslet), smuggled his stories out of the asylum, and they were published and became very popular. Unfortunately, they also attracted the attention of the clergy and the emperor Napoleon, who decided that De Sade must be silenced.
The asylum was run by a young priest (Joaquin Phoenix) who was idealistic and gentle with the inmates. But Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine) was sent to control De Sade. The doctor was a man of science, but unfortunately his methods were reminiscent of torture. These two came into conflict with De Sade's need to write, which was more important to him than the necessities of life. According to him, "my writing is involuntary, like the beating of my heart."
None of De Sade's writing was used in the movie. (The movie is partly fictional, and the DVD has information about the parts that are historically accurate.) Some writing passages were invented by the movie's writer based on unfinished outlines left by De Sade. This text indicates that De Sade's writing seemed to be designed for shock value, not unlike a "Friday the 13th" movie or "The Jerry Springer Show", giving it a strange resonance to modern mass media.
One of the interesting facets of the movie is the different effect that the writing has on different people. Some, like Madeleine, see it as escapism. She says, "Reading is my salvation.... I put myself in his stories. I play the parts.... If I wasn't such a bad woman on the page, I'll hazard I couldn't be such a good woman in life." In comparison, Dr. Royer-Collard's young wife Simone (Ameila Warner) reads and memorizes a book, and then puts it into practice, which either liberates her or corrupts her (depending on one's point of view).
The Marquis also made some barbed comments about religion, in part to annoy the priest. He said, "This monstrous God of yours. He strung up his very own son like a side of veal. I shudder to think what he would do to me."
This 2000 movie, which is rated R, raises a lot of interesting ideas. The Marquis isn't an entirely sympathetic character. But his obsessions, and their effect on other people, makes for a powerful drama.