Instead, he's just a cad, a dirty old man in contemporary parlance. Funny, and after you get past all the buggery threats, pretty likable. Winslet does a more than passable job at depicting a young woman caught between fear of and desire for the Marquis. And the costumes, for what it's worth, hit the spot, as do sizable chunks of the dialogue. As the director of the sanitarium and a priest, the Abbe is torn between his administrative duties, his empathy for de Sade, and, in the end, his overflowing physical desire for Madeleine.
Art is, as they say, neither moral nor immoral, just good or bad.
B- Review courtesy Flak Magazine . All Rights Reserved. Don't steal our stuff.