History Film / Quills

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Dr. Royer-Collard lives happily ever after, using the Marquis' work and the inmates' slave labor to make himself wealthy.]]

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: The Abbé Courmier and the Marquis de Sade (insofar as he is portrayed as a victim of state censorship).

* PlayingGertrude:
** Geoffrey Rush was 49 years old when the film was released, and played Marquis de Sade up through the latter's death at 74.
** The 24 year old Creator/JoaquinPhoenix plays the 60-odd Abbé de Coulmier -- though that might also be considered an AgeLift.

[[caption-width-right:310:Meet the Marquis de Sade. The pleasure is all his.]]

A 2000 biographical film, directed by Philip Kaufman and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright, who adapted his own [[TheFilmOfThePlay play of the same name]]. The film follows the ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory highly fictionalized]]) last years of the Creator/MarquisDeSade (Creator/GeoffreyRush, in an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-nominated role), the notorious 19th-century French nobleman, author, philosopher, and libertine. The film is set at Charenton, a lunatic asylum where Sade has been sent for his continued publication of pornographic novels that double as nihilist philosophy tracts.

A 2000 biographical film, directed by Philip Kaufman and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright, who adapted his own [[TheFilmOfThePlay play of the same name]]). The film follows the ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory highly fictionalized]]) last years of the Creator/MarquisDeSade (Creator/GeoffreyRush, in an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-nominated role), the notorious 19th-century French nobleman, author, philosopher, and libertine. The film is set at Charenton, a lunatic asylum where Sade has been sent for his continued publication of pornographic novels that double as nihilist philosophy tracts.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/quills.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Meet the Marquis de Sade. The pleasure is all his.]]

A 2000 biographical film, directed by Philip Kaufman and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright (adapting from his own [[TheFilmOfThePlay play of the same name]]). The film follows the ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory highly fictionalized]]) last years of the Creator/MarquisDeSade (Creator/GeoffreyRush, in an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-nominated role), the notorious French nobleman, author, philosopher, and libertine. The film is set at Charenton, a lunatic asylum where Sade has been sent for his continued publication of pornographic novels that double as nihilist philosophy tracts.

Charenton is run by the Abbé du Coulmier (Creator/JoaquinPhoenix), a rather progressive administrator who allows the Marquis to continue writing, on the theory that it will "purge" the evil from his mind. Unbeknownst to the Abbé, however, Madeleine (Creator/KateWinslet), his protégé and one of the asylum's chambermaids, has been secretly smuggling the works to the outside world, where they are published anonymously. This turns out to be a mistake, however, as the Emperor Napoleon (Ron Cook), realizing who the author is, orders the renowned "alienist" Dr. Royer-Collard (Creator/MichaelCaine) to go to the asylum, where he is tasked with curing the infamous Marquis...[[TheUnfettered by any means necessary]].

A 2000 biographical film, directed by Philip Kaufman and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright (adapting from his own play of the same name). The film follows the ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory highly fictionalized]]) last years of the Creator/MarquisDeSade (Creator/GeoffreyRush, in an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward-nominated role), the notorious French nobleman, author, philosopher, and libertine. The film is set at Charenton, a lunatic asylum where Sade has been sent for his continued publication of pornographic novels that double as nihilist philosophy tracts.

* MadArtist: The Marquis affects this, when told that [[spoiler:Madeleine has been killed by an inmate inspired from his prose]], but he shows his TrueColors eventually.

** The 24 year old Creator/JoaquinPhoenix plays the 60-odd Abbé de Coulmier.

Charenton is run by the Abbé du Coulmier (Creator/JoaquinPhoenix), a rather progressive administrator who allows the Marquis to continue writing, on the theory that it will "purge" the evil from his mind. Unbeknownst to the Abbé, however, Madeleine (Creator/KateWinslet), his protégé and one of the asylum's chambermaids, has been secretly smuggling the works to the outside world, where they are published anonymously. This turns out to be a mistake, however, as the Emperor Napoleon (Ron Cook), realizing who the author is, orders the renowned "alienist" Dr. Royer-Collard (Creator/MichaelCaine) to go to the asylum, where he is tasked with curing the infamous Marquis...by any means necessary.

Charenton is run by the Abbé du Coulmier (Creator/JoaquinPhoenix), a rather progressive administrator who allows the Marquis to continue writing, on the theory that it will "purge" the evil from his mind. Unbenknownst to the Abbé, however, Madeleine (Creator/KateWinslet), his protégé and one of the asylum's chambermaids, has been secretly smuggling the works to the outside world, where they are published anonymously. This turns out to be a mistake, however, as the Emperor Napoleon (Ron Cook), realizing who the author is, orders the renowned "alienist" Dr. Royer-Collard (Creator/MichaelCaine) to go to the asylum, where he is tasked with curing the infamous Marquis...by any means necessary.

* JailBait: Dr. Royer-Collard, who is in his fifties, marries Simone, a girl of 15, which becomes fodder for a play that the Marquis puts on at the asylum. The whole business stops being funny when the doctor [[RapeAsDrama rapes her in their bed]].

* YourCheatingHeart: Mostly averted. Dr. Royer-Collard's child-bride Simone shamelessly flirts with the hunky architect that's renovating the doctor's house. [[spoiler:They run away together, but it's portrayed as more of an escape from a terrible situation than malicious cheating]].

%%* DownerEnding

** The Marquis de Sade had already written and published ''Justine'' long before he went to Charenton (in fact, it was one of the books -- the other being ''Juliette'' -- that got him locked up; also, despite what the film implies, much of his infamous work was published before the Revolution, and wasn't inspired by it). He had been in and out of prison for years less for his writings than for a string of sexual offences, including abduction and rape. Most of the stuff he published in Charenton was both rather tame and not particularly good, being rejected by the publishers who saw it. He was kept under regular police surveillance (which the film does not show) and for good reason, and the only reason he was in Charleton in the first place was because he abused the hell out of the InsanityDefence to get a cushy sentence. He was a colossal {{Jerkass}}, [[FatBastard morbidly obese]] at the time of the movie, and deeply unpopular with many of the other inmates for his special treatment. Kate Winslets character was only 13-15 in RealLife when [[DirtyOldMan de Sade]] began his lengthy affair with her, and he had paranoid delusions that she was a spy. He paid her 3 francs for each liason and, in real life, [[spoiler: she was not murdered by anyone.]]

** Napoleon also counts, in the sense that in RealLife his involvement in the whole affair was limited mainly to having de Sade arrested- after that, he didn't give a crap about the man and was happy to forget about him.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Dr. Royer-Collard denounces the sexual amorality and disgustiness of Sade's writing, while raping his 16-year-old wife (of course, this would [[MaritalRapeLicense not be considered rape]] then). [[spoiler: He also accuses the Abbé of exploiting the inmates to gain money, while he does the does the exact same thing at the end of the movie]].
* ILoveTheDead: One of de Sade’s book concerned about a man raping a corpse 6 decades his senior.

* LuxuryPrisonSuite: The Marquis' cell at Charenton is outfitted like a gentleman's study. After he continues writing and publishing despite being ordered not to, the cell is slowly stripped of all furnishings, until it merely consists of bare walls and floor.

* GreyAndBlackMorality: When the ''Marquis de Sade'' is the sympathetic protagonist...

* BaddassLongcoat: Abbé du Coulmiere wore a banging cassock for most of the film length.