In France, in 1794, during the apex of the Reign of Terror, the scandalous marquis de Sade (Daniel Auteuil) finds himself, like many other nobles, waiting for the guillotine in one of the prison of the Republic. There, the young daughter of one of his inmate becomes fascinated by him and he becomes her tutor in the mysteries of love and libertine life."Sade" almost play like the anti-thesis of "Quills", another movie on the divine Marquis released the same year. The plot of "Quills" bears no relation to the historical reality while, on the contrary, the one of "Sade" put a great emphasis on historical accuracy. Contrary to the screenwriter of "Quills" who seemed to know next to nothing about the life and work of the real Marquis de Sade, the one of "Sade" obviously did his homework. Although taking some liberty with the facts (Sade was indeed imprisoned at the Picpus prison during the Terror but none of the events depicted in the movie actually happened; Sade's mistress did not sleep with one of Robespierre's henchmen in order to save the marquis from the guillotine), this movie is overall an accurate portrayal of the author of "Justine": a libertine, yes but also a philosopher and a critic of the society he was living in with a sarcastic sense of humor. Auteuil's performance is mesmerizing even though its choice to play the Marquis is a little bit surprising since, by the time, after years of imprisonment in the prison of the King, the divine Marquis was obese.The immorality of the Marquis which leaded to crimes only on paper is contrasted with the morality of Robespierre and his followers which leaded to real crimes in reality. Here again, the movie displays the same attention to details and historical accuracy that it did in the portrayal of the marquis: the history buff will notice Robespierre's tinted glasses, the fact that he is brought to the guillotine with a broken jaw or the depute jumping out of a window of the Paris town hall during the incorruptible's arrest.But the movie is brought down by its unimaginative direction, more typical of a made-for-TV movie than a feature film and a limited budget leading to low production values: the costumes are superb but the historical realism is kind of ruined by the generic set that fails to convey the atmosphere of revolutionary France the movie try so hard to convey.Yet, for someone intrigued by the Marquis de Sade or the French Revolution, "Sade" is a nice portrayal of an extreme man who lived in some extreme times.

An admirable antidote to Philip Kaufman's tiresome and campy Quills(2000)with Geoffrey Rush, this features a fluent, strangely appealing, only mildly reptilian Daniel Auteuil, whose tireless acting fluency here reminded me of Al Pacino. No "de": Sade is at pains to deny he's a noble and favors the revolution and expresses contempt for Christianity and particularly the notion of a Supreme Being which the momentarily ruling Robespierre is promoting. Sade is being held with a lot of aristos at a big "asylum," actually a country-club style prison at Pictus, a former convent with a grand park where everyone is paying a manager for what favors they can afford hoping to remain there till the guillotine is retired or they start beheading some other group. In fact the Reign of Terror ends and Robespierre and his Jacobins are out and the asylum is vacated . (This all takes place ten years before Quills, I'm told.) But meanwhile Pictus is a bizarre mixture of frivolity and horror, since cart-loads of decapitated bodies are being brought to be buried in mass graves, leaving a horrible stench and reminding the inhabitants they could be next to go.Sade's libertine stances and immense self confidence make him attractive to rebellious young people and he particularly chooses to instruct and flirt with the young Emilie de Lancris, played by "gamine du jour" (Hoberman) Isild Le Besco (of the 2004 À tout de suite). Eventually, in the film's most "shocking" scene, Sade arranges for Emilie to be deflowered in his presence by the tall young gardener, Augustin (Jalil Espert), getting Augustin to whip him first, which turns Autustin on. The longtime mistress he calls "Sensible" (Marianne Denicourt) lives in town with their little boy and the uptight, sadistic Fournier (Grégoire Colin), a nervous member of Robespierre's inner circle. There are scenes with Fournier and Sensible; and others when Sensible and the boy visit Sade, whom Fournier doesn't like, but protects out of love for Sensible. There is also an orientalist pageant depicting the "joys of captivity" which begins as a staging of one of Sade's milder plays. There are astonishingly bright-colored and eccentric costumes, which are apparently true to the fashions of the Terror. Jacquot, in a brief interview which is the DVD's only extra, says he took pains to have all details authentic. But it tends to feel like a project whose vague aim was simply to make a movie about Sade starring Daniel Auteuil. In that Jacquot succeeded; otherwise; he rehabilitates the writer's reputation, or presents him more as a serious figure than an ogre, monster of depravity, or household word. An interesting and smart film, but not a profoundly memorable one.

The title is a misnomer:the movie depicts barely one year of the so-called "divin marquis" .Twas a hard time for him 'cause he was threatened by the guillotine :the quiet joys of the reign of Terror .Historically speaking,the background is rather sketchy: "the fête De l'et re supreme",Robespierre's failed attempt to create a secular religion,his downfall ,a heaven sent opportunity for showing Doctor Guillotin's sinister machine at work (full speed).As far as Sade is concerned ,it's a downright mediocre affair :he's waiting in a former nunnery with other nobles ,a golden cage if you compare it to ,say,Marie-Antoinette's or scientist Lavoisier's fates,and he exchanges futile conversations with a young virgin about death,love and other trivia.There's the obligatory "daring" scene but you've got to be patient because it's a long time before it comes on the screen.And anyway ,by today's standards ,can we call that risqué? Cy Enfield's "De Sade" ,which enjoys one of the lowest ratings of the IMDb ,is at least entertaining ,and Keir Dullea was a more credible marquis than the aging Auteuil.And it featured John Huston.

Daniel Auteuil makes an excellent Marquis de Sade (even better than Geoffrey Rush in Quills) in this intelligent film by one of France's very best directors, Benoit Jacquot (The School of Flesh, Pas De Scandale). Unlike the aforementioned Philip Kaufman picture, which examined the issue of censorship by using Sade and his work as a backdrop, this film intends to explore the sides of the infamous pornographer as philanthropist. While being held prisoner in a grand chateau with many other nobles following the French revolution, Sade befriends a curious young woman and teaches her a thing or two about growing up. The relationship they develop is genuine and in the end very moving, mostly because while instructing her to loosen up she teaches him how he can reclaim his emotional self and learn to once again love the society that he has dismissed as conventional and narrow. Not Jacquot's best, but a worthy piece of work.