Quills
Quills
Directed by:
Philip KaufmanCinematography:
Rogier StoffersComposer:
Stephen WarbeckCast:
Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine, Billie Whitelaw, Patrick Malahide, Amelia Warner, Stephen Moyer, Tony Pritchard, Michael Jenn (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Rush gives a tour-de-force performance as history's most infamous sexual adventurer, the Marquis de Sade. A nobleman with a literary flair, the Marquis lives in a madhouse where a beautiful laundry maid (Winslet) smuggles his erotic stories to a printer, defying orders from the asylum's resident priest (Phoenix). The titillating passages whip all of France into a sexual frenzy, until a fiercely conservative doctor (Caine) tries to put an end to the fun, inadvertently stoking the excitement to a fever pitch. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Reviews (2)
Quills is brilliant in its visual aspect and acting, but inconsistent in its content. Cynicism and provocation conflict with dramatic romance and the credibility of the relationships. Mixed feelings from a haphazardly mixed cocktail. The filmmakers apparently thought that this contradictory content would ensure that controversy would inevitiably arise around the film. Maybe they succeeded in that, but it didn’t make Quills any better.
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I was looking forward to a big acting clash between Geoffrey Rush and Michael Caine, yet, there is so little of Caine's character in Quills that there was no battle and the film became Rush's entitled exhibition. He's great - just like Kate Winslet. However, the rest of the film is quite awkward and even kind of boring towards the end, which surprised me.
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