Quills

D: Philip Kaufman; with Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine.

For those who prefer their period pieces down and dirty, look no further than Quills, Philip Kaufman’s long-awaited biopic of the Marquis de Sade. Adapted from Doug Wright’s hit play, Quills examines the latter half of the scandalous French scribe’s life inside a sanitarium. With Geoffrey Rush as the Marquis, Kate Winslet as the laundry woman who smuggles his stories of sex and seduction to a publisher, and Michael Caine as the Marquis’ doctor, Quills is already positioned as an Oscar front-runner. Kaufman, whose previous films include The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Henry and June, promises plenty of erotic fireworks compliments of Winslet, who reportedly appears in much of the film au natural (once she becomes the Marquis’ sex slave). Joaquin Phoenix also stars as a decadent priest who thrives off de Sade’s corruption. With this much deceit, religious zealotry, sadomasochism, and sexual bombast, Quills may make Dangerous Liaisons look like a trip to the nunnery. (Dec. 25)

This article appears in November 24 • 2000.

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