Marquis

I think the film is both an interesting and enjoyable film, showing you what the Marquis De Sade had in mind when he was writing his novels, and it also accompanies you with very surreal scenes with its fable version, and it also delves into the philosophy of the Marquis De Sade. The Marquis is a character you should get to know, and the film introduces you to one of his aspects. It brings a different tone to the spread of his novels and shows the inner city factions of France, and you enter the French theme of those years. I also saw it as a work that tries to do this with black humor.

Somewhere along the lines of "The Muppets Take the Bastille" via "Deep Throat", this unusual but lavishly produced film is (very) loosly based on the writings of the Marquis de Sade. Using period costumes and animal masks, the interweaving tales of treachery and deception make for clever intrigue, but the high sexual content (in it's brief release in the USA, it was limited to the "art house" circuit), has hobbled the film's availability.

While not a "porn film" in any real sense, it does reflect the sexual mores of pre-Revolutionary France and features clay-animated dramatizations of sequences from the Marquis' own writings. Let the kids watch "The Lion King" for the umpteenth time, then lock the door and watch this for yourself. Just remember that a film like this would NEVER be made in the USA. You'll have to hunt for this one, so don't bother looking for it in your local Blockbuster.

(Sidenote: The designer of the costumes is a puppeteer for a French children's TV show along the lines of "Sesame Street", and it caused a brief sensation when the film was first released.)

Whatever one thinks of the recent rise of Sade as a darling of the intelligentsia and pseudo-intelligentsia, it must be admitted that some not-bad films have been made about him. This film, unfortunately, is evidence more of the trendiness than the historical interest, as its whimsical and overly-bizarre production attests. Only if there is a future sub-genre in which giant rats are sodomized by lobster tails is it likely to remain more than a curiosity. Yes, I know it had a talking penis in it. Tee hee. I still found it empty.

A live-action fable of the Marquis de Sade (and his talking penis)'s time in the Bastille, in which every character has the head of an animal.

A true one-off, this extraordinary film is as deliriously obsessed with sex as its subject, hilariously explicit in every way and yet never (in my opinion) actually pornographic. The rubber animal faces, though remarkably expressive, cleverly make it impossible to forget what you are watching is only a fairy tale, a procession of symbols clashing in a marching philosophical fiesta.

It makes me wish more films had been made in this unique style, but it was the director, Henri Xhonneux's, last, and I don't think there's been anything even remotely like it ever since. Or before, for that matter.

This is one of the strangest movies I have ever seen. I found it to be discomforting and just weird. It makes you squirm in your seat and wonder what the people making this are like in real life. It's definitely entertaining and it sort of sucks you in, especially if you don't know French and have to read subtitles. It is certainly not American and it is certainly very peculiar. I have never seen a movie where everyone is wearing life-like animal costumes and acting like humans in very abnormal ways. This movie gives me the chills. However, I would watch it again just because it is so fascinatingly WEIRD.