QUILLS

2000

Vulgar... violent... erotic... thought-provoking... humorous... These are all words I would use to describe QUILLS, a film by Philip Kaufman about France's controversial Marquis de Sade. Let me add one more word: brilliant. Brilliantly written and brilliantly acted by an amazing cast which includes Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine and Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis de Sade. The timeline for the film is the last few months of the Marquis' life as he wastes away in an asylum, but still manages to get his erotic manuscripts snuck out to get published. As you might expect, the film makes sure that you get a good understanding of the Marquis' writings and why he was censored, but it also is a direct attack at censorship and repression. Three interesting things to watch for: 1. what the film gets rated (either R or NC-17), 2. how widely it actually gets distributed, and 3. whether or not the Academy will recognize it, given its subject-matter. I loved it, you may not -but, you've been warned.

5 Stars

CDF

The Marquis DeSade (Geoffrey Rush) languishes in the Charenton Prison for the Criminally Insane, where he is able to write some of his most depraved and perverse books. These are smuggled out to a publisher, with the help of a kindly laundress (Kate Winslet), under the nose of the unsuspecting Abbe (Joaquin Phoenix), who runs the prison. Napoleon, who sees these books as a threat to his power, sends a Javert-like. Doctor (Michael Caine) to put an end to it. This film is based on a play that was written as a protest to the controversy surrounding the National Endowment for the Arts subsidizing what some people considered to be depraved and perverse art back in 1996. What may have been seen as topical and powerful in the midst of that debate, today seemed to me at least, to be strangely unmoving, and often boring. There's no faulting the acting, which is excellent throughout. Much of what is attributed to DeSade is read aloud and meant to shock, but it comes across as silly and tame to a modern-day audience fed on rap, Penthouse, and cable TV. Everyone in the film appears to be insane, so there really are no "good guys or bad guys." Everyone gets what they deserve in the end. Just talking about filth and perversion doesn't automatically make for an exciting story, and this one had long stretches where I kept thinking of the old saying, "If you sleep with dogs, you wake up with fleas!"

3 Stars

NJB