SADE
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France
2000 / 35 mm / Color / 100 min.
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Paris, 1794. The Revolution has entered the bloodiest phase of the Terror and the Marquis de Sade is once again in prison. Indeed, he will always appear suspect in the eyes of whatever regime is in power. The puritanical Robespierre, who is proclaiming the cult of the Supreme Being, sees only an enemy in this great aristocrat turned agitator, libertine and atheist, a highly immoral man', unworthy of society' and the author of the shocking Justine. Sade is in his 50s. He is familiar with prisons such as the Bastille and Saint-Lazare, so that Picpus, the former convent-turned-prison hospital where he is now being interned seems like an earthly paradise... Picpus is a phony sanitarium where aristocrats and con men can save their necks by emptying their pockets. To whom does the penniless Sade owe this good fortune? To his mistress, Marie-Constance Quesnet, whom he calls Sensible. She saves the life of her fearsome lover by giving herself to Fournier, a deputy and a member of Robespierre's entourage. In the corridors and gardens of Picpus, where the graces of the Ancien R�gime survive as in an artificially-preserved world, Sade finds an entire society to populate his theatre. Sade, the stage director, the great organizer, is back in his element. He has lost none of his subversive passion, his outbursts of cunning provocation, his sense of humour. But, perhaps, age and a certain weariness have humanized him... There is a very young girl, �milie de Lancris, an ideal prey. How can he, the immoral teacher', educate her without destroying her? The guillotine looms, however, and Sensible can do nothing more for him now... -- Jacques Fieschi
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Script: Jacques Fieschi, Bernard Minoret. D'apr�s/Based on: Terreur dans le boudoir. De/By: Serge Branly.
Phot.: Beno�t Delhomme.
Ed.: Luc Barnier.
Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Marianne Denicourt, Jeanne Balibar, Gr�goire Colin, Isild Le Besco, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Philippe Duquesne, Vincent Branchet, Raymond G�rome, Jalil Lesper.
Prod.: Patrick Godeau, Alic�leo, 1, quai Gabriel P�ri, 94340 Joinville Le Pont (France), t�l.: (33-01) 43 97 68 00, fax: (33-01) 43 97 68 01.
Sales: TF1 International, 125, rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 92138 Issy-les-Moulineaux (France), t�l.: (33-01) 44 4115 04, fax: (33-01) 41 41 31 44/31 76.
Canadian Distributor: Remstar.
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Beno�t Jacquot
Born in Paris in 1947, Beno�t Jacquot is of the generation of French cineastes who in the '70s broke with the New Wave and opted instead to emulate the esthetic of Bresson, in Jacquot's case adapting it to a 19th-century novelistic approach to the cinema. His filmography includes: L'ASSASSIN MUSICIEN (1975), LES ENFANTS DU PLACARD (1977), LES AILES DE LA COLOMBE (1981), CORPS ET BIENS (1986), LES MENDIANTS (1988), LA D�SENCHANT�E (1990), LA FILLE SEULE (1995), LE SEPTI�ME CIEL (1997), L'�COLE DE LA CHAIR (1998), PAR C�UR (1998) and PAS DE SCANDALE (1999). |
