When Marat/Sade was first shown--those of us used to the traditional Hollywood film entertainments were just stunned. What a tour de force of acting, story, makeup, style, filming and music. We didn't know what to make of it. On the one hand it was the scariest, most disturbing film we had seen, on the other
hand it was a grand entertainment with absolutely intriguing characters. Was it historically accurate? Is it a dream? Was that really supposed to be the
Marquis de Sade up on the screen? The film has amazing bookends: The
opening film credits appearing in complete silence one word at a time and then disappearing one word at a time, has to be sort of a classic of film titles-- anticipating the minimalist art movements in the visual arts. Before the film even begins, we are off kilter, completely disoriented. The horrifying ending at the time was a shocker. One is really unprepared for this spectacular brutality--and the fact that it just ends in the midst of the chaos with zero resolution again is totally disorienting. This remains a great film--with some of the most amazing acting ever caught on screen. For most of us here in the U.S., it was the first time we saw Glenda Jackson. Her voice, her presence, her amazing acting
technique--she became instantaneously recognized as one of the great screen
actresses. And sure enough shortly thereafter, she won her two academy
awards. If you enjoy great theatre, and great film treatments of theatrical
material--this film is simply not to be missed.
Marat/Sade
1967
Action / Drama / History / Music
Marat/Sade
1967
Action / Drama / History / Music
93% - Critics
79% - Audience
7.5Plot summary
July 13, 1808 at the Charenton Insane Asylum just outside Paris. The inmates of the asylum are mounting their latest theatrical production, written and produced by who is probably the most famous inmate of the facility, the Marquis de Sade. The asylum's director, M. Coulmier, a supporter of the current French regime led by Napoleon, encourages this artistic expression as therapy for the inmates, while providing the audience - the aristocracy - a sense that they are being progressive in inmate treatments. Coulmier as the master of ceremonies, his wife and daughter in special places of honor, and the cast, all of whom are performing the play in the asylum's bath house, are separated from the audience by prison bars. The play is a retelling of a period in the French Revolution culminating with the assassination exactly fifteen years earlier of revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat by peasant girl, Charlotte Corday. The play is to answer whether Marat was a friend or foe to the people of France. In the primary roles are a paranoiac with a skin condition (much as Marat had himself) as Marat, a narcoleptic with melancholia as Corday, and a sexual manic as M. Dupere. Coulmier feels he needs to intervene anytime during the performance when things get out of hand. The Marquis may have ulterior motives in the telling of this story, he who plays a large role on stage, especially in his discussions with the Marat character about the nature of the revolution and the differences in their individual motives concerning the revolution. As the inmates perform a story of revolution, they may subconsciously be sucked into the story mirroring their own struggles with authority. Real life and the actors' afflictions may also dictate how the performance turns out.
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Marat/Sade
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade.
The title pretty much sums up this powerfully visualized "play", set in 1808, during France's supposed success rate at educating the insane. This play by de Sade which is a scathing dissection of the French Revolution using Marat as the voice for the war as the Marquis takes the role against it. Morality obviously being this is a play from Marquis de Sade is also under the microscope as those that are insane fulfill certain roles under the celebrated masochist's direction. Monsieur Coulmier(Clifford Rose)is the mediator watching de Sade's behavior regarding what his script can and can not say. Blasphemy in this supposed golden age of France can not be warranted so Coulmier, with the assistance of nuns and guards inside, try to keep the deranged--and de Sade--in check.
The play itself is told through not only the characters written on page, but from the insane themselves who often intervene on their own behalf. The ending is a fine slap in the face of the so-called success the French asylums seemed to have employed as the maniacs, after finishing, attack all the normal folk inside(two aristocratic women are audience members inside the cell--what were they thinking?)as Marquis relishes the chaos with glee.
The staged film is disturbing, bleak, but profound and spellbinding. The way the camera moves throughout the cell(and several shots through the bars and on the darkened audience outside the cell)is hypnotic and deeply luridly fascinating. The cast is so good, they really convinced me I was watching a directed play using loonies!
Marat, We're Poor, and the Poor Stay Poor
Some really intellectual reviewers have captured this film, so I don't have a lot to say. I worked on this play in college and found it mesmerizing. There is a weighty drag on the human spirit because the characters are actually mental patients in the time of the Marquis de Sade. They probably weren't necessarily crazy, which adds a considerable type of angst to the performances. I think the music is astounding and poignant. At some point we begin to realize that the harsh society (or even our society) is really the star here. This is possibly voyeurism at its worst.