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QUILLS Send This Review to a Friend
The factual history of the Marquis de Sade has more than enough fodder for drama and sensationalism, so one may wonder why the need for fictional extremes. There seems to be no reluctance to wildly embellish in "Quills," written by Doug Wright based on his play and directed by Philip Kaufman. Thus we have the horrific scene in which the imprisoned and tortured de de Sade has his tongue cut out. Excess is the key word here, and yet the overpowering visual texture and hellish nature of "Quills" appeal to the voyeur in us even as the film intellectually pits the explicitness of de Sade's work against the repressive, outraged forces that would ban it. The film inherently rages against censorship as we see de Sade humiliated and persecuted.
Central to the film's force is Geoffrey Rush, whose performance as de Sade is certainly the boldest of his career thus far. He ventures into risky territory, baring his emotions as well as his body. He becomes at once a man obsessed with his outrageously kinky delights, a man who seems to be half-crazed, a defiant fighter against efforts to obliterate his writing, a prisoner with erotic sexual hunger and finally someone who with all means of expression denied will write on the walls with his own excrement. De Sade may be held in restraints, but Rush banishes all restraints as an actor in this gargantuan performance.
Kate Winslet also gives one of her better performances as Madeleine, the laundress in the Charenton Asylum who smuggles out de Sade's writing and is sexually tantalized by his sexuality and persona. On her part, she is a temptress to Joaquin Phoenix, the priest whose humane views are overridden by the vengeful, sadistic Dr. Royer-Collard, who takes over the administration of Charenton on the orders of Napoleon, who has been infuriated by Sade's writing. Michael Caine convincingly makes Royer-Collard menacingly evil in his determination to brutalize and silence de Sade.
The film is loaded with grimness and terror, to say nothing of a dash of necrophilia. It takes a strong stomach to watch some of the scenes without flinching, particularly the tongue-slicing scene. There is a rather fanciful ending that resurrects de Sade's work in a Charenton printing operation soon after his death. The point being made is the inability to silence him after all.
"Quills," like Sade's more notorious writing, is not for everyone, but many will find it fascinating and imaginative. A Fox Searchlight Pictures release.
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