Quills **** (2000, Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine) – Classic Movie Review 1432

Director Philip Kaufman’s real-life period drama stars Geoffrey Rush, the 1997 Best Actor Oscar-winner for Shine. He relishes a great, lip-smacking turn as the infamous Marquis de Sade, the French writer, jailed in a Parisian lunatic asylum after writing books about kinky sex.

De Sade (1740-1814) then causes a national scandal by getting his laundress Madeleine LeClerc (Kate Winslet) to help smuggle his manuscripts out to a publisher in this unexpectedly dazzling biopic. The film boasts two other top-notch performances – by wily old Michael Caine as de Sade’s evil tormentor Dr Royer-Collard and Joaquin Phoenix as his protector, the Abbé de Coulmier, boss of the asylum where de Sade is jailed.

With a witty, thought-provoking script by Doug Wright based on his own play, dynamic direction by Kaufman and a superbly sumptuous production, Quills is one to write home about. Just don’t take Aunt Edna along to the cinema and keep her away from the TV set.

Billie Whitelaw (as Madame Leclerc), Patrick Malahide, Amelia Warner, Stephen Moyer, Tony Pritchard, Michael Jenn and Ron Cook complete the cast.

Billie Whitelaw died on December 21 2014, aged 82.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1432

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