QUILLS
UK, 2000, minutes, Colour.
Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Kate Winslett, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw.
Directed by Philip Kaufman.
Quills is a significant title for this somewhat caricatured portrait of the Marquis de Sade in his later years in the asylum at Charenton. De Sade has a compulsion to write his stories, write his phobias, write his fervid stories of sexuality and violence, challenge the authorities, break the taboos. He is desperate for quills, for ink, ultimately writing his stories in blood and excrement. Anyone wanting a more serious view of the Marquis and his 'sadistic' six theories and perspectives might be better served by the French film 'Sade' with Daniel Auteuil as de Sade.
What we have here is a satirically serious take on the Marquis. It opens with a French Revolution execution with de Sade watching but commenting on it in the form of a violent novel. It sets de Sade in the context of the Revolution, its brutality, its politics as well as the Napoleonic era (Napoleon posing for a portrait and authorising the burning of de Sade's books). This means that we are working at many levels even though on the surface it all looks, as some reviewers have noted, like 'Carry On Marquis'. But how else do you present the inmates of an asylum whose life is miserable and whose conditions are squalid and whose madness is at attempt to alleviate the woes and escape them?
This is true of de Sade who is played with devil-may-care (literally) verve by Geoffrey Rush, a blend of insanity and common sense, of exploitation yet expose of social and political hypocrisies. Philip Kaufman, who had made a film about Henry Miller and his sexual obsessions and literature, Henry and June, seems to be asking us to acknowledge that real life is not as pure as claimed and just how much writings like those of de Sade actually do corrupt. What is the value and role of censorship?
Kate Winslett is the laundrymaid who smuggles the manuscripts to avid publishers. Joaquin Phoenix is the chaplain to the asylum, trying to be broad-minded and considerate to the inmates but angry at his betrayal by de Sade and his repressed infatuation for the laundrymaid. Michael Caine is the 'alienist', the allegedly advanced doctor who relies on barbaric treatments and who is commissioned by Napoleon to suppress de Sade's work.
Not an easy film to assess because of the controversies of the subject matter and because of the light, sometimes flippantly serious exploration of de Sade and what he stood for.
1. The reputation of the Marquis De Sade? Character, interest, history? Sexual preoccupations and themes?
2. The re-creation of the period? Napoleon? Society, institutions, costumes, decor, the musical score?
3. The title, the writing, the marquis and his work, frustrations? The abbe, his writings?
4. The marquis and sadism, masochism? the opening and the French revolution, the guillotine? The woman, the big brutal man, the sadism, the blood, the crowd, the guillotine?
5. The Marquis, the institution, his madness, his clothes, the cell, his writing? The maid, smuggling his writings? The visitors? The abbé and the Marquis Deceiving him? The Doctor and the interviews? The theatre performances? His enjoying them? His being put in solitary and stripped naked? No quills? His narrating the story, the many voices relaying the story? Madeleine writing? The torture, the water torture, the marquis and his attitudes, his death?
6. The methods for treating the mentally ill, inhumane, water torture, 18th century attitudes?
7. The doctor, Napoleon, the minister reading the book, Napoleon’s disgust? Burning the book? The doctor and his appointment? His seeking his young wife? his arrival, the reception, the people in charge, his relationship with his wife, her behavior behind his back, her leaving him? his looking down on the Marquis, the young abbe and his confusion? The theatre performances? His disapproval? His angry treatment of the Marquis? The torture and death? His finally being in charge of the institution? Printing the books? The profit from the books? The cynicism of his behavior?
8. The Abbe, his work as a chaplain, his sense of vocation, his attraction towards Madeleine, his sense of his vow of celibacy? Care for the inmates? His interest in the Marquis, his shock at discovering the writings? The theatre and performances? The arrival of the doctor? The disdain of the doctor? His experience of temptation? Madeleine? The death? His sexual behavior with her body? His cell and isolation? His taking up writing? Madeleine's mother and her supplying the material?
9.Madeleine, the age, experience, fascination with the Marquis, doing his laundry, supplying the materials, giving them to the courier? Listening to his words, the interviews? Love the human and devotion? Her relationship with the Abbe, his visit, her death? A virgin? De Sade’s boast?
10. Madeleine's mother, the aftermath, supplying the material to the Abbe?
11. The patients, the work, personalities, in the theatre, in the printing works? The brutal, hulking inmate, attacking Madeleine, his being caged?
12. The arrival of the new chaplain? The tour with the doctor? His seeing the printing press? The doctor in charge? His double standards? The printing of the books? Publicity? Funds?
13. The detail of French Society at the time? Moral standards? The French revolution, the aftermath? The shock writings of the Marquis? The exploitation? His reputation? And his place in history and literature?
