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SADE Send This Review to a Friend
The fascination with the life of the Marquis de Sade has yielded yet another film, this one simply titled "Sade," which was previewed in the 2001 Rendez-vous with French Cinema series. Directed by Benoit Jacquot, "Sade" not only focuses on the ever-controversial character but gains dramatically from its depiction of the dangerous era of "The Terror" in which de Sade lived and was in peril of execution.
The setting is an estate that has become a prison for members of the aristocracy well-heeled enough to pay for such lodgings as the guillotine in France is kept busy. The film is utterly different from the frenetic, impassioned and very fictional "Quills" that was released not long ago. Jacquot's work strives for a calm historical reality and concentrates on the intellectual and seductive powers of de Sade.
Of course the film can only work with a superior central performance, and with the casting of Daniel Auteuil, that requirement is fulfilled brilliantly. Auteuil interprets the character with intelligence and intensity, and, as this script by Jacquot and Bernard Minoret demands, with a mission. He focuses his wiles on the innocent young Emilie, portrayed hauntingly by Isild Le Besco, who has emerged as an important and extremely capable French actress. The process of corrupting or enlightening Emilie, depending on how you view the proclivities of the master, is fascinating to watch.
This is not a situation in which de Sade is the seducer for himself, but he aims to do it vicariously by arranging a liaison between Emilie and a young gardener whom he chooses to take her virginity while he oversees and dictates the action after being flogged as part of the procedure. The sequence is the center of the film's eroticism.
Marianne Denicourt is beautiful and affecting as Sensible, de Sade's devoted mistress. The portrait of de Sade at 50 is both sympathetic and ominous with respect to the power he can exert over those whom he meets and attempts to cultivate. The film is stunningly photographed and directed with sensitivity and respect for the subject. It also is a sad film as a result of the way in which it is tied to the historical events that envelop all of the characters. An Empire Pictures release.
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