Quills [DVD] [2001]

This movie deserves five stars for Geoffrey Rush's portrayal of the Marquis alone. Taking up yet another challenging role, he becomes Kaufman's and script writer/playwright Doug Wright's de Sade as perfectly as no one besides him could have done. We see an aging Marquis who, although locked up in his cell in Charenton, is as arrogant by birthright as he is by nature; and thoroughly convinced of his own superiority, has tricked himself into an "I'm only here because I allow you to do this to me" attitude.... Having heretofore shamelessly exploited the lack of control exercised by the asylum's resident priest, Abbé Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), de Sade initially thinks nothing of the risk inherent in exposing Royer-Collard for the hypocrite that he is, thereby however ensuring the doctor's enmity even more thoroughly and quickly than he would have been sure to gain it anyway. A battle of power ensues that de Sade cannot possibly win, or so it would seem - although he finds endless ways of beating back every new measure of repression he is subjected to.

Intertwined with the battle about de Sade's freedom to write (and more importantly, to publish) is his and the Abbé's battle for Madeleine (Kate Winslet), the Marquis's ally in the publication of his writings as much as she is Coulmier's prodigy and pupil. Madeleine is in many respects the personification of the qualities each of the two men stands for; but more than that, she is the object of both of their unfulfilled desires. Ultimately, knowing that he has lost all his battles, chained to a prison wall and the Abbé at his throat, challenging the Marquis to admit that he loved Madeleine and to lay bare the weakness he had so striven to hide, de Sade tries to win yet one more time; disdainfully attempting to turn the exchange with the Abbé into the ultimate male spitting contest and thus exploit the limitations imposed by Coulmier's priesthood. But it is at the expense of a lie, and Coulmier sees through him. And whereas the Abbé soon thereafter comes face to face with his own demons, the Marquis is left with nothing but a final, desperate, equally abominable and grandiose act of rebellion.

While Geoffrey Rush alone would have carried the film even with lesser actors by his side, it certainly helps to see him paired up with Winslet, Phoenix and Caine and a well-chosen cast of supporting actors; not to speak of the outstanding cinematography. There may be plot twists that seem far-fetched (such as the "liberation" of Royer-Collard's convent-raised teenage wife Simone by de Sade's writings, and her running away with a handsome interior decorator), but ultimately, none of that is crucial to the movie's central conflict. Superb acting and direction more than make up for whatever minor flaws one might detect in the plot (and even for the license Kaufman and Wright are taking with biographical facts, something I am not always quick to forgive). The screen positively explodes every time Rush and Phoenix face off, and it crackles with tension and barely repressed desire in their respective scenes with Winslet. Great actors feed off each other, and in that respect, the movie probably would have benefited from a more direct confrontation between Rush and Caine as well. But even outside the clash of the film's four protagonists, many little scenes are skillfully used to shed additional light on the issues presented. Just think of Napoleon's court reader, feeling duty-bound to ask "Must I, your Majesty?" before proceeding with some of the more gory details of the copy of "Justine" that has fallen into the emperor's hands; or de Sade's wife telling Royer-Collard that the Marquis's greatest crime consisted in making her fall in love with him. - This movie would have deserved every Academy Award it was nominated for, hands down. Given its subject matter, however, it is anybody's guess why it didn't win a single one of them. Read more ›