Quills

Plot synopsis:
Quills begins in Paris during the Reign of Terror, with the incarcerated Marquis de Sade penning a story about the libidinous Mademoiselle Renard, a ravishing young aristocrat who meets the preeminent sadist in her executioner.
Several years later, the Marquis is confined to the asylum for the insane at Charenton, overseen by the enlightened Abbé du Coulmier. The Marquis has been publishing his work through laundress Madeleine "Maddy" LeClerc, who smuggles manuscripts through an anonymous horseman to a publisher. The Marquis' latest work, Justine, is published on the black market to great success. Emperor Napoléon I Bonaparte orders all copies of the book to be torched and the author shot, but his advisor, Delbené, tempers this contentious idea with one of his own: send alienist Dr. Royer-Collard to assess Charenton and silence the Marquis. Meanwhile, the Abbé teaches Madeleine to read and write and resists his growing attraction to her. Madeleine reads the Marquis de Sade's stories to her fellow workers. Whilst Madeleine is fascinated by the Marquis de Sade she remains reluctant to give into his advances. The Abbé and Marquis converse on the Marquis' inappropriate advances on young women.
Dr. Royer-Collard arrives, informing the Abbé that the Marquis' "therapeutic writings" have been distributed for public consumption. He presents the Abbé with the ultimatum of silencing the Marquis or Charenton will be shut down by order of the Emperor. The Abbé rejects Royer-Collard's offers of several aggressive archaic "treatments" and asks to speak with the Marquis himself, who promptly swears obedience (winking at Madeleine through a peephole). Royer-Collard takes his leave for the time being and travels to the Panthemont Convent in Paris to retrieve his promised bride, the underage orphan Simone. They are given a run-down chateau by the Emperor, with a handsome young architect, Prouix, on hand for its renovation.
The hasty marriage incites much gossip at the asylum, prompting the Marquis to write a farce to be performed at a public exhibition, which Dr Royer-Collard and his young wife attend. The audacious play, a shockingly straightforward parallel of the good doctor's own misogynist domination of his virginal bride, is titled "The Crimes of Love". The performance is interrupted when the inmate Bouchon molests Madeleine off-stage, prompting her to hit him in the face with an iron. The Abbé is seen publicly comforting Madeleine. Royer-Collard shuts down the public theater and demands that the Abbé do more to control the Marquis, or he will inform the ministry that the inmates are running the asylum. Infuriated, the Abbé confiscates the Marquis' quills and ink. The Marquis's wife visits him and he takes out his frustration at not being able to write on her; she retaliates by asking a surprised Dr Royer-Collard that the Marquis be entombed forever. They discuss that the ill-gotten gains from the Marquis's books could be used to effect his salvation, in other words, provide forms of restraint. The lack of writing implements results in more subversive behaviour from the Marquis, including a story written in wine on bedsheets and in blood on clothing. This results in further deprivation, eventually leaving the Marquis naked in an empty cell. Charlotte, one of the maids, reveals that Madeleine has been helping the Marquis. Madeleine is whipped on the order of Dr. Royer-Collard until the Abbé stops him by offering himself instead. The Abbé decides that Madeleine must be sent away. That night she visits his chamber to beg him to reconsider sending her away and confesses her love for him in the process, prompting him to kiss her passionately. They abruptly break away at the realization of what they are doing. Madeleine runs off and Charlotte catches the Abbé calling after her.
Meanwhile, Royer-Collard violently raped Simone on their wedding night, and continues to keep her as a virtual prisoner. She purchases a copy of Justine, seduces Prioux, and the young lovers run off to England together. She leaves behind a letter explaining her actions and her copy of Justine. Upon finding this, Royer-Collard seizes on the Marquis as the source of his troubles and embarks upon a quest for revenge, by having him tortured.
About to be sent away from Charenton for her role in assisting the Marquis, Madeleine begs a last story from him, which is to be relayed to her through the asylum patients. Bouchon, the inmate at the end of the relay, is excited by the story, breaks out of his cell, and attacks Madeleine. Royer-Collard hears Madeleine's screams but chooses to ignore them and she is killed by Bouchon. The asylum is set afire by the pyromaniac Dauphin and the inmates break out of their cells.
Madeleine's body is found by her blind mother and the Abbé in the laundry vat. The Abbé is devastated by Madeleine's death and Bouchon is captured and imprisoned inside an iron dummy. The Abbé blames the Marquis for Madeleine's death and prods him into a fury. The Marquis claims he had been with Madeleine in every way imaginable, only to be told she had died a virgin. The Abbé has the Marquis' tongue cut out as punishment for his involvement, but is riddled with remorse and physically punishes himself. The Abbé then has a dream in which Madeleine comes alive and they have sex, but ultimately it ends with him holding her corpse. The Marquis' health declines severely, but he remains perverse as ever, decorating his dungeon with a story, using faeces as ink. As the Marquis lies dying, the Abbé reads him the last rites and offers him a crucifix to kiss. The Marquis defiantly swallows the crucifix and chokes to death on it.
A year later, the new Abbé arrives at Charenton and is given the grand tour by Royer-Collard. During the tour they meet the maid Charlotte and through the exchange between herself and Royer-Collard it is apparent that there is a connection. The asylum has been converted into a print shop, with the inmates as its staff. The books being printed are the works of the Marquis de Sade. At the end of the tour, the new Abbé meets his predecessor, who resides in the Marquis' old cell. Yearning to write, he begs paper and a quill from the new Abbé, and tries to strangle Royer-Collard when he ventures to close the peephole. The Abbé is herded off by Royer-Collard before he can hear anymore from his predecessor. However, the peephole opens, and Madeleine's mother thrusts paper, quill, and ink through. The Abbé begins to scribble furiously, with the Marquis providing the narration.

Tags: violence, cruelty, murder, sadist, sci-fi

Review:
Kate Winslet and Joaquin Phoenix play well in this movie but have had better performances which is a true testament to their abilities.The writing of the movie is very good in that the movie remains interesting throughout.
It is this epic struggle between religion and nature for the soul of humanity that Philip Kaufman captures so brilliantly in his wickedly perverse, mordantly witty and brilliantly acted film, `Quills.'Director Kaufman, working from a screenplay by Doug Wright (based on his play of the same name), chooses to start his tale almost at its end  at the period when De Sade was already wasting away in an insane asylum, considered too perverted and dangerous in his ideas to be allowed to run loose among the general populace.
Wright's and Kaufman's other two main characters include the priest, The Abbe du Coulmier, who is keeper of the institution, and Madeleine LeClerc, a beautiful young devotee of De Sade's work who serves both as laundress and chief smuggler for the author and his works.In many ways, the most interesting conflict turns out to be the one between De Sade and the Abbe, two men seemingly antipodes apart yet somehow able to find a common ground of mutual respect and understanding.
Special not must be taken of the superb performances by Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine and Kate Winslet.
Quills is the modernized story of the Marquis de Sade, whose steamy writings whipped France into a sexual fury in the late 18th Century.
In Philip Kaufman's Quills, the focus is on the Marquis de Sade after his writing has taken him beyond the artistic freedom generally accepted in the 18th and 19th centuries, even to elite aristocracy like himself.
It is a detailed exploration of the events that led from him being a social elitist to living almost three decades in prison, writing things that caused his keepers to make it so difficult for him to write that he ultimately uses his own blood and excrement for ink, and his clothing, the walls of his cell, and his own skin as parchment.Luckily for the Marquis, at first anyway, is that there is something of an understanding priest in the Abbe du Coulmier, another wonderful performance from Joaquin Phoenix.
Both men engage in many of the same practices, it's just that the Marquis makes no attempt and has no interest in hiding his interests in the pleasures of the flesh.I think that the most important thing to remember about this movie is that it is able to deal with a person who's beliefs are, I like to think, below the moral compasses of most of the people who will watch the movie, but it's not about what he was writing, it's about the fact that he was writing at all.
One of the most controversial movie of the year, "Quills, " based on the play by Douglas Wright, doesn't entirely examine the torpid mind of the disreputable 18th century French author, the Marquis de Sade, but instead indicates the impact his sexually and sadistically explicit literary work influenced the public.
The movie's characters take their own sides; after becoming aware of the authors material, Napoleon wants de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) shot dead at the insane asylum he is being held at, but instead a sadistic torturer named Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine) is assigned to take charge of the patient; the virginal laundress Madeleine (Kate Winslet) , thinks de Sade is a writer, not a madman, and helps to smuggle his erotic stories out of the institution for public publication; the asylum priest, Adde Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), first befriends de Sade and grants him special privileges, but once he discovers the extremity of his subversive ideas, he reluctantly changes opinions.
The Marquis was an extremely complex individual, and Rush captures that through a character without heart or compassion, but with spirit and zest; even though de Sade went through each day with suffering, he still approached life with insight, ambition and curiosity.
The film presents viewers with all the evidence they need to identify the fallacies of society's separation of "good" from "evil" and "moralists" from "sinners." It subtly asserts that the values traditionally used to pass judgment are compromised by convention and religion, and that there is moral danger in accepting these values without question.During the film, one form of sin is only replaced by another, which defeats its resistors and beguiles the rest by hiding behind a pretentious shroud of religion and convention.Viewers are horrified to discover that they can actually identify with the marquis, whose name inspired the word "sadist" to describe those who derive sexual pleasure from violence.
Most viewers' senses of morality are sullied by the realization that they are hanging on every twist of the plot, desperate to know what will next beset these wretched characters.Based on historical fact, Quills catches up with the Marquis (Geoffrey Rush) during the twilight of his life, when he has already been sentenced to life imprisonment in the Charenton Asylum.
At the urging of the saintly, ever-tolerant and even-tempered Abbe Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), the marquis describes his imagination's disturbing scenes on paper.Trouble arises when one of his books, smuggled to a publisher by a sympathetic admirer - innocent laundry maid Madeleine (Kate Winslet) - catch the disapproving eye of Emperor Napoleon.There is no escape from sin when the man sent to purify the Charenton, Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine), only seeks to replace it with intolerance and unimaginable cruelty.True to the spirit of the film, the sets are imbued befittingly with gloom and grime, and the inhabitants of the Charenton are realistically ragged.Rush and Winslet's performances as the marquis and Madeleine are stunning.
A baroque and quite entertaining film about the Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) and the conflicting reactions (disgust, titillation, excitement, abhorrence) his ideas and writings fostered in those exposed to them.Rush jumps into the character of de Sade with mad glee, and hardly any scenery is left after he's done chewing it all.
Also doing a fine job in this film is the ever-reliable Kate Winslet, and providing the ick factor he brings to every movie he's in is Joaquin Phoenix as a religious man who's disturbed by the naughty thoughts de Sade makes him realize he has.The costumes and production design are a delight and earned Oscar nominations, as did Rush for his performance.Grade: A.
The good story and the great depiction of the time in which the film takes place would not have been so thrilling, exciting and interesting as they were had it not been for all the involved actors and of course the director.
A dark look at an insane erotic storywriter named Marquis De Sade (Rush) and his stay an asylum run by religious priest Abbe Du Coulmier (Phoenix).
The film has great performances, a brilliantly written script and great direction, although running a little over an hour the story is so rich and characters developed well enough for one to really enjoy it.
My favorite performance came from Joaquin Phoenix, who was great, however Geoffrey Rush was better than I have ever seen him, fully worthy of his Oscar nod.
The only reason this movie deserves two instead of one star is that the actors deliver great performances, especially Rush (as usual), Winslet and Phoenix.But as for the rest of the movie: BOO HOO.
The movie features a great and original story of a writer, who happens to be an insane asylum inmate, during the Napoleonic era who through his writing knows to manipulate and control everyone around him, of all levels of society.
And again, it really helps that the movie has some great actors delivering the lines.Geoffrey Rush is a real scene stealer and no wonder he received an Oscar nomination for his role in this movie.
What I think was most aggravating was how little we really learned about the Marquis De Sade, at certain points it seemed like he was hated just for being a wicked gossip, while at other times he came off as a dirty old man.
This made me ask, why couldn't this film simply have told the life of the Marquis De Sade as it was, rather than changing the true story into a fictional one that is far less interesting?
I was reminded to write a comment because I'm in the midst of reading the excellent At Home with the Marquis De Sade by Francine Du Plessix Gray (available on Amazon) and it made me angry once again at the disdain for truth and art shown by the people who threw together this cesspool of a film..
Philip Kaufman's movie of Doug Wright's play pits the Marquis de Sade, by this point committed to an insane asylum, against a sadistic doctor brought in to cure him of his transgressive thoughts and writings.
This is not a good thing: Geoffrey Rush (as de Sade) and Michael Caine (as evil Dr. Royer-Collard) are not performers that can chew up this stuff and still manage to maintain dignity.
I liked the movie from the beginning until the end.Kate Winslet and Geoffrey Rush are brilliant in their roles.
I understand the film's wish to present him as a sympathetic figure but I have to wonder if the character created by Geoffrey Rush, a kind of erudite court jester with the mind of a dirty old man, is a true reflection of the Marquis as a person.
Yet this is done in Quills, as it details the life of Marquis de Sade-the racy French writer at the turn of the 18th century--and his struggle for artistic freedom in his sadomasochistic novels.So the film explores what to write and not, and what belongs on paper vs.
The weight of a well-respected cast (Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine) is felt throughout the film.
Rush, Winslett and Caine do tremendous work but the movie is very dark, harrowing and gruesome in many places, is historically inaccurate (the real Marquis De Sade died in his 70's, at home) and is rather 'politically correct' in toning down aspects of Sade's sexuality and in having more male, than female, nudity rather than attempting equality.
Not sure why this was the case, since the historical figure was a mere pervert with homicidal tendencies.The premise, in turn, follows a trend in contemporary art and culture, where Marquis de Sade becomes almost a free speech activist in today's terms.We might argue whether the film should follow historical facts or author's vision, but for me Quills deserves two stars..
There is a Peter Finch movie called 'Asylum' that plays out a similar theme to this one that you should see for context.Despite John Leonard's review, this film shows BOTH the fact that de Sade was mad, AND human, AND driven by the desire to write and show the hypocrisy in respectable society.
Geoffrey Rush is hilariously charismatic as The Marquis de Sade, a man who lives by glorifying the raunchiest sex acts he can imagine, but is at a loss when he finds himself falling in love.
In Quills, he's portrayed as a twisted man but one with a heart as Geoffrey Rush plays him in such an amazing way that I truly was dissapointed that this man didn't receive the Best Actor Award at that year's Academy Awards.
Joaquin Phoenix shines once again as he proves that once again he has just as much if not more acting ability than his late deceased brother River Phoenix but he plays the hell out of the sexually frustrated in love with Ms Winslet priest who also has way too much heart for the patients in the asylum until the evil Michael Caine comes along and mainpulates him into destorying the Marquis but in the end (and to me the best part) the Marquis gets the last laugh beyond the grave.
Rather disappointing - a bit of a modern "Carry On" film - waste of good talent, waste of a good opportunity to say something meaningful about censorship, waste of a good opportunity to do a semi-biographical film about an interesting character and his work.Quills focuses on the period of the life of the Marquis de Sade when he was confined to a mental asylum.
Quills is the worst kind of  movie  it boasts superb acting performances that mask its shortcomings, specifically, the manipulative script that actually paints the Marquis de Sade as a martyred victim.
Geoffrey Rush plays the slightly insane Marquis de Sade, a sexually explicit writer during 18th century France.
The Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) is locked up in the Charenton Insane Asylum run by Abbé du Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix).
A pretty well made film with some excellent performances, particularly from Geoffrey Rush and Kate Winslet.
However, the exquisite performance of Rush, Winslet, Caine and Phoenix is what gave shape and soul to the film.
An intensely religious man, Coulmier believes that the Marquis should be allowed to write, if only to purge himself of the sadism with which his head is filled and which would later be named after him.Kate Winslet plays Madeleine, a laundry maid who smuggles the Marquis' writing out of the asylum so that it can be published, for which many people are not happy, but many others are.
An intensely religious man, Coulmier believes that the Marquis should be allowed to write, if only to purge himself of the sadism with which his head is filled and which would later be named after him.Kate Winslet plays Madeleine, a laundry maid who smuggles the Marquis' writing out of the asylum so that it can be published, for which many people are not happy, but many others are.
The film explores the conflict that existed between human passions, as exemplified by the Marquis (Geoffrey Rush), and the more spiritual aspirations, exemplified by the Abbe of Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), the Administrator of Charenton.
Geoffrey Rush plays the Marquis as someone who is under a ferocious drive to express his philosophy in writings whatever the cost; Joacquim Phoenix provides the perfect character foil as the (relatively) kindly Abbe de Coulmier who befriends De Sade; Kate Winslet, although too old, plays Madeline LeClerc, the laundry girl who helped De Sade smuggle his writings out of the prison to the printer for continued distribution despite the increasing fury of Bonaparte's government - historically I believe Madeline was a thirteen year old, but Kate nonetheless plays this part admirably; and Michael Caine has the role of the Government appointed doctor who was, if possible, more sadistic than De Sade himself.
It comes greatly in the form of Michael Caine as the Doctor, who is ordered by Napoleon to come to the aid of a Priest (Joaquin Phoenix, one of his better performances), who is running the asylum De Sade is currently banished to.
Geoffrey Rush is the Marquis De Sade, imprisoned behind the walls of the asylum of Charenton but still managing to smuggle his books out to be published and his performance is a wonderful, full-blooded piece of carnality.
The most interesting last days of French aristocrat and cult writer Marquis de Sade at a mental asylum are portrayed here with honest passion, thanks to the director Philip Kaufman and the ever-brilliant Geoffrey Rush.
Even if he's just a "pervert", then he's not the only one: watch what the Abbe du Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix) does to Madeleine LeClerc (Kate Winslet) in one scene.Overall, I don't know how accurate this movie is, but you're sure to like it nonetheless.
What ensures is a tale more about censorship and corruption than anything else.Kudos goes to the writer Douglas Wright, not only is his script solid and makes good watching, but where else can you find a writer with the courage to create his own works of de Sade?Geoffrey Rush is clearly enjoying himself, as are the other central characters Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Winslet and Michael Caine.
The roles of the fabulous actors (Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Winslet, Michael Caine, etc.) were written by the amazing Doug Wright who just won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony award for his new play "I Am My Own Wife".
Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis gives one of the great performances of all-time.
Very loosely based on the life and writings of the notorious 18th Century French author the Marquis De Sade (played here by Geoffrey Rush), the film deals with hypocrisy, censorship and the therapeutic value of writing.The film opens with Sade locked up in the Charenton asylum, ruled by the kindly Abbe du Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix) who encourages Sade's writing becuause of it's therapeutic value.
This movie, more than any others that have been done around the guise of the Marquis de Sade, is a triumph in the fact that it not only showcases the man himself (a fictional account of his last days in an asylum) but of other people that were around him.
So if you see the movie as a nice, perfectly acted fanfic about the life of Sade, you might like it better.I love Joaquin phoenix in it.
I knew nothing of the Marquis De Sade's writing before watching this movie and found myself captivated by the subject matter and its eloquent case for freedom of expression.
When I saw this film I knew nothing about the Marquis de Sade, and that was probably a good thing.
From reading the comments it seems most people who know the Marquis de Sade's work hate this movie.
The grotesque sexual adventures of the Marquis de Sade are given a highly stylish film with some good performances making it all seem more than it really is.
Joaquin Phoenix and Geoffrey Rush were definitely robbed of their Oscars for their performance in Quills.Historically accurate, this movie really shows the inner workings of the demons during the French Revolution and the eternally twisted mind of the Marquis de Sade.
Rush took the character of the Marquis de Sade and made him into a truly believably person.