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"WEEKEND STAR" FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2000-9 A searing examination of morals and censorship SCREENING ROOM By John Foote QUILLS (Yet ey) Directed by Philip Kaufman Now in theatres Every once in a while, a human being comes along who questions all the basic assumptions of society, who probes the very limits of morality, and who negates the old, comfortable ideas of what it means to be human. Throughout history, both ancient and modern, such individu- als have been regarded as dangerous, and yet ironically have prompted the most extreme and morally questionable responses. At the turn of the 18th century, in the wake of the bloody French Revolution, one such dangerous maverick was the Marquis de Sade, the originator of the term sadism. So scandalous was the work "of the Marquis that it still shocks audi- ences of the 21st century, and his legacy continues to raise the debate about just what to do with those who gleefully explore the most sinister taboos. Philip Kaufman's daring new film Quills, based on the remarkable play by Doug Wright, explores the questions of what is moral and what is immoral, but beyond that, what to do with a man who channels the torments of his mind into his writings. Do we take away the outlet and allow him to then act out his darkest fan- tasies, or allow him to write, letting his audience make the moral decision? The picture is a scathing black comedy that becomes a searing drama in its exploration of censorship, and the unpre- dictable consequences of free expres- sion. Of course, the motivation at the heart of Wright's scalding stage play and subsequent film adaptation is to channel de Sade's blasphemous and morally chal- lenging sense of mischief, eroticism and creative triumph into a deeply moving tale of a tortured artist struggling with madness, and the love around him. Quills opens with one of the most stun- ning sequences | have ever seen in a film. A beautiful young woman is shown on the screen from the shoulders up, seemingly in the throes of some sort of building pas- sion as her apparent lover caresses her off camera. Moving into the frame we see he wears a hood, which considering this film is about de Sade is really no surprise. Then slowly the audio comes into the film, and we realize this stunning young woman is about to be guillotined in front of the chanting crowd in Paris. Tears flow down her face as she is bound and placed on the board facing down into a basket where half a dozen heads lie bleeding. With sudden swiftness, the executioner releases the blade and it hurtles down into her, ending her life, her erotic charms, and obliterating her beauty. The crowd cheers the beheading, as they did during the Reign of Terror, and * Geoffrey Rush, here with Kate Winslet, turns in an n Oscar-worthy perfor- mance in Quills. we hear the sly voice of the Marquis telling us his sad tale. Locked up in the mental institution run by a cheerful young Abbey (Joaquin Phoenix), the Marquis toils about his writ- ings, secretly managing to get them out and published despite. the ban imposed on his work by the diminutive Emperor Napoleon. His accomplice in this crime is Madeline (Kate Winslet), a laundry girl who strikes an odd friendship with the Marquis, quietly consuming his books, never quite understanding the madness that rages in the man. When found out, his writing quills are taken from him, and eventually, he is stripped (literally) naked to keep him from writing what society has deemed as obscene. Suffice to say that not even that stops him, as he finds horrific ways to write with his own body waste. While the film possesses much humour, there is a tragic Shakespearean feel to the drama, which is of course about: the freedom of speech within the arts.- Those ideas are inherently free, and no. matter how hard and impassioned the attempts to imprison an idea may be, it simply cannot happen. Please turn to page 14 ve Fs AMAA BN yy LR al Ll O08 RE YEE eh AAA A AR NE SYEN Ny ry LEC EL dd AL Lov a ese T---- 4 J ooo Zotob gd tt fst an --