Hey folks... here's a dark subject matter... The Marquis De Sade, but directed by the man that brought us... THE RIGHT STUFF... and HENRY & JUNE. So... having little knowledge of the project at all at this point... though this goes a long ways towards informing us about the project. So... here ya go... Here's Mike...
Here's an on-set report from London of the new film "Quills" starring Geoffrey Rush, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine and Kate Winslet.
I have wanted to contribute to your site for a long time. And finally now I have the chance. I worked as an extra for a couple of days on the set of the new film from director Philip Kaufman. He is of course the director of films like "The Right Stuff" and ehm... the awful "Rising Son". And "Henry & June" which was the first motion picture to get the NC-17 rating. As an extra I had absolutely no info on what the film was all about and the set was completely closed. But one of my friends from drama school have a bigger part in the film and he told me what I wanted to know about it.
The working titel is "Quills". The same titel as the 1995 play, which it is based on. Playwriter Douglas Wright actually won the Obie Award in 1996 for it, and he has also adapted it for this film. But there were some strong indications on the set that the film's titel would change before being released. Mentioned was "The Marquis".
The film is about French writer Marquis De Sade. In many of his writings, De Sade described in detail various sexual activities that he himself practiced. Consequently, the term sadism, used by psychiatrists to denote that form of neurosis wherein sexual satisfaction is gained by the infliction of pain on others, is derived from his name. In his philosophy, both criminal and sexually deviant acts are regarded as natural. His works were therefore labeled obscene and their publication was banned well into the 20th century
The story takes place at a criminal lunatic asylum in France where De Sade (Geoffrey Rush...great) is commited. The infamous pornographer is being commited because of his tales of horror and sexual obsession, and worse. Sexual crimes. He is being tortured by Priest Abbe De Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix...great). Coulmier is not a violent person but he is being forced to do it by the asylum doctor. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine...even greater). So why does De Sades' tales still turn up in public once in a while ? Because of the young maid (Kate Winslet...just as great) who works at the asylum. So they take away anything for De Sade to write on. But he still has bedclothes and writes on them with wine, blood, and some things you can't even imagine! Now Sade is left naked in his cell with nothing but straws to sleep on. So he starts whispering the stories from cell to cell. To one lunatic to another. Untill Madeleine, the maid, can write them down on the other side of the walls. A plan with disastrous consequences for both Madeleine and De Sade.
I believe we will see some new sides of Kaufman's talent here. The film will be very dark and scary. With everything from torture to ghosts coming back to haunt the dying lunatics. And normal people going totally bonkers because of the influence from De Sade (like Priest De Coulmier does). And then you ask; Will it have a lot of sex in it ? I don't think so. It will be a sexual film. But only in terms of the relationship between De Sade and the young maid Madeleine, who's actually a virgin and obsessed with fantasies about De Sades' writing.
So the scenes I was in was unfortunately not in the set build as standin for the French prison of Charenton. Which I heard from my friend should be pretty scary. I would have liked to see it but it was absolutely baned. That's why I think it will be something unreal that we haven't seen anything like before. The scene involved a conversation between the doctor and the priest. Michael Caine and Joaquin Phoenix. It was at the point were the priest gets ordered to start torturing De Sade, after they find out that the maid is releasing his writings.
This looks like a really great performance from Phoenix. His part is the most demanding in the movie. Going from a noble priest to a lunatic haunted by ghosts. I'm also looking forward to see Geoffrey Rush and Kate Winslet. Damn, I didn't meet her ! We all know what Rush can do and Winslet is in the smallest of the four leading roles, but I think this is something we have never seen her do before. I mean, curious about sadism !! That's something.
Your MPAA will probably not go easy on this one. Maybe Kaufman did this just to challenge them. I don't know. A solution could easily be like the one for "Eyes Wide Shut". We will see a different version here in Europe, and in America it will be cut to an R rating. Maybe it's beacuse it's my first work in a film as an "actor" but I'm really looking forward to this one. Who knows. It could be like "Seven". A film that just crawls under our skin and stays there.
"Mike"
