I loved this movie. On my list of Top Ten movies of 2000 that I posted to this site, Quills came in at a very respectable number 5 (tied with The Yards). But I wanted to clarify what I wrote in that review a bit and flesh out it out into full blown film criticism glory.
Having just seen the movie again after about 6 months, two things became abundantly clear. One, this is still a very difficult movie to watch. And two, this film is not about the Marquis de Sade. I don't know why I didn't notice it before. Quills is really about the Abbe du Coulmier, played brilliantly by Joaquin Phoenix in a performance that I still say was his best of 2000 (I mean he was great in Gladiator and all...but really?).
This is an interesting assumption, eh? What do I mean?
The protagonist of a film must go through some kind of character change. Something must happen to them or they must do something that changes them in a way that is different from the start of the film. Geoffrey Rush's Marquis de Sade doesn't go through a change. He is still the same man. In fact, the more that happens to him the more rooted he is in his philosophies.
But the Abbe makes a complete transformation over the course of the film. This film is about beliefs; it is about just how shaky beliefs are, especially when yours come up against someone else's. Without ruining the movie, I can tell you that Abbe's beliefs are called into question as de Sade's attempts at literary brilliance escalate.
Plot?
Essentially the plot involves a washerwoman, Madeleine (Kate Winslet) helping the Marquis de Sade smuggle his writings (most notably Justine) out of Charenton, the insane asylum where he has been...uh, held...for about 27 years. Quills follows the increasingly fascinating battle of wills between the Abbe and de Sade as de Sade finds more and more ingenious ways of expressing his art. The pressure of a truly awful doctor, Royer Collard (Michael Caine, here much better than his overrated turn in Cider House Rules) from one end and de Sade from the other makes life hard (understatement?) for Abbe.
But again, this film is not about de Sade. In fact, de Sade is mostly sanitized for our poor Middle American consumption. Instead, the Marquis de Sade becomes a tool with which the hypocrisy of organized religion can be examined, and more overtly, the passion and devotion to one's art can be examined. De Sade must come up with inventive ways of writing, because that is who he is. While I'm not sure if he actually did any of the things in the film, it is entirely within the realm of possibility and what is known to be de Sade's character. He was obsessive and he did what he did partly out of contempt for the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy alike.
Geoffrey Rush is great as de Sade. He makes us see and feel the determination and the sickening zeal with which de Sade played the French. The more they pushed him back, the more he put a mirror up and showed them their own a**es. What de Sade said is probably reprehensible (jury's still out for me, I'm not sure how I feel) but the fact that he did it and managed to implicate all of humanity is impressive and indicative of intelligent men who recognize that with intelligence and civilization comes a demonization of things most human and "base." Rush wraps this all up in a manic portrayal of de Sade. His scenes with Phoenix crackle with sexual tension. A great performance.
Kate Winslet's part is trickier because we are not entirely sure just what about de Sade motivates Madeleine to do what she does. And in a way she is just a tool of the plot. She is the innocent. The object for which both de Sade and the Abbe are fighting. But that the Abbe is attracted to her, gives Winslet something to latch onto. She plays Madeleine with the right amount of natural sex appeal and innocence, enough to let us believe that the Abbe is attracted, but not enough for us to think she is outright tempting him. Madeleine is a woman who wants to learn, is open and that is what attracts the two men. Winslet pulls the role off with her usual aplomb and subtle sexy grace.
In my mind, this is the best performance Michael Caine has ever given. The only thing wrong with this character is that he is so very evil. And I mean that in the fact that he is so weak and very much the kind of man that de Sade writes about. That of a bourgeois who purports to be a holy religious man, but is really a mean, spiteful, and hypocritical man who is more sexually depraved than he would care to admit. Royer-Collard is not a terribly complex man on the surface. A less interesting actor would just latch onto the villainous aspect of him or the libidinous aspect and play him one-dimensionally. Caine doesn't, he plays him as a man who feels exempt from God's law, or rather, a man who feels that the way he lives his life isn't at all what God would dislike. He is a self-important narcissist and that nuance allows us to like and identify with Royer-Collard more than we would like.
But this film belongs to Joaquin Phoenix. His portrayal of the increasingly tortured Abbe is revelatory. Here is a man devoted to his beliefs but incapable of really doing everything required to be a good man of the cloth. He lusts after Madeleine, and is overly lenient with his inmates so much so that he allows de Sade to stage plays, mocking the aristocracy. As the film progresses, Phoenix slowly lets the Abbe's grasp of his religious feelings unravel. It is a meticulous performance of brilliantly subtle nuance and aching sincerity. His scenes with Rush in particular are magnificent. His final scenes with Winslet are equally impressive.
I highly recommend Quills because in the end you learn more about how much a man's convictions can mean. To him and to others. The film is a fascinating power struggle. But you really get to decide, at the end, who wins.
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