My downfall was not caused by my way of thinking…but that of others--Marquis de Sade
In the annals of history, there have been few men more misunderstood than Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade. The mere mention of the ‘Divine Marquis’ often conjures up but one image, even in today’s society, that being the father of the term ‘sadism’. However, Sade was more than a man with some extreme sexual appetites…he was an author (his works caused scandal throughout France with their pornographic subject matter and controversial commentary on society), a playwright, a philosopher, and even something of a politician during the Revolution (despite the fact that he’d been a noble all his life and felt himself above the common man). He also spent much of his life in various prisons (in fact, he died in an institution), wrongly imprisoned by a vindictive mother-in-law for displeasing her (and having an affair with his wife’s sister).
In 1989, French filmmaker Henri Xhonneux would release his film. Marquis, a movie that would attempt to show Sade in a slightly more humanistic light—the irony being that to show Sade as human, he’d resort to literally putting an animal face on the man himself.
Marquis is often referred to as ‘an adult version of The Muppets set in pre-revolutionary France’ or a film along the lines of Peter Jackson’s raunchy muppet flick Meet the Feebles. And while Marquis does feature human actors clad in puppet-like animal heads, I find that comparing it to either The Muppets or Meet the Feebles does Xhonneux’s film a grave disservice.
Set in the Bastille near the time of the revolution, Marquis tells a tale that is one part pornographic, one part social commentary—combining the two disparate styles into a story that is consistently engaging throughout its 90 minute running time. The Marquis, our hero, is a dog-faced nobleman who’s been imprisoned in the Bastille for defecating on a crucifix (when confronted with the evidence of his crime, he’s asked if he did indeed do the deed, to which the Marquis replies, ‘I’ve defecated on so many crosses…it’s merely a poetical demonstration’). Sade wiles away his days in the prison by writing pornographic vignettes, debating life issues with his penis (who he’s named Colin, and who’s also his harshest literary critic…often complaining that Sade’s tales are filled with ‘too many verbs’) and deflecting the amorous advances of a rat-faced warden named Ambert.
However, things soon change when the young and virtuous Justine arrives at the Bastille. Justine (who has the face of a cow) claims to have been raped by none other than the king himself. So, in order to deflect any possible controversy, a plan is hatched—Justine will be placed in Sade’s company…therefore, the authorities can refute her claims by saying that Sade is the child’s father.
Meanwhile, Juliette, a horse-faced dominatrix is hatching an elaborate plan to free several prisoners—including the wolfish cop Lupino and his pork merchant partner Pigonou—and launch the revolution. Camel-like priest Dom Pompero is stealing the Marquis’ work and publishing them for his own profit (just one of the many biting scenes directed at organized religion), and so on…until things come together at an interesting, if a bit open-ended, climax.
Xhonneux and company have created an incredibly surreal alternate reality in this film—a fact that is driven home by the wonderful creature masks designed by Roland Topor. For the first few minutes, viewing Marquis seems almost like a weird acid flashback, animals wander the dank dungeon that is the Bastille, walking on two legs, talking, and appearing completely human. However, after about 10 minutes, you find yourself accepting the character designs and even appreciating them. The masks have an incredible level of detail and are capable of showing even the slightest emotions. Shortly after the film begins, you’ll find that you can’t imagine the film with actual human characters.
In a film like this, the acting almost seems secondary (particularly when you consider that all the thespians are hidden behind animal masks). However, everyone does a credible job here managing to blur the line between animal and human. These aren’t simply humans with animal faces—the actors do attempt to portray some of their character’s animal traits in their actions (most notably the rat-faced Ambert who slouches and slinks his way through every scene he’s in). This ultimately makes the film even slightly more surrealistic.
Aside from the human actors in animal face, the film also features several claymation interludes, all based on episodes from Sade’s own writings. Needless to say, this isn’t the kind of claymation that you’re gonna want to show the kids, as they’re probably the most pornographic parts of the film.
Still, the raunchiness aside, Marquis is more than a pornographic film. There’s a very well defined social commentary running beneath the debauchery in this film. Perhaps the most ironic point of Marquis is that it portrays Sade himself as the most moral and heroic character in the story—a far different light than the one that most films and texts have chosen to cast upon him. And while I don’t think of Sade as a hero in the traditional sense of the word, I do tend to find him heroic—and it’s nice to see him portrayed in a more flattering light than usual.
Summing up, I love this film—it’s surreal and consistently entertaining, offering up both weird situations (the countless scenes of Sade and Colin chatting together definitely count as surreal in my book) and biting social commentary. It’s a much more cerebral film than Jackson’s Meet the Feebles (which is a good film, mind you) and far more entertaining than the ‘Muppets for grown-ups’ quotes would indicate. If you’re an admirer of the Marquis de Sade, a fan of weird, avant-garde cinema, or if you enjoyed Meet the Feebles, then Marquis is definitely a film you should check out.
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