Quills, Unconventionally Inspiring!

I don’t generally review movies, and moreover this is not a Movie review! This is just straight from my bosom!

Quills, is a movie I watched a long time ago. Probably in the year 2007. I borrowed it from a friend.

At first I was taken by the cast, Kate Winslet and Geoffrey Rush; the former for her timeless beauty (& Nudity?) and the later for his adroit acting!! I did expect powerful scenes from the Movie, but this movie surprised me far beyond my expectations of being surprised!

The movie is apparently based on a French writer from the 18th century, Marquis de Sade. This is not exactly a biography of the writer but ample inspiration has been derived from the writer’s lifestyle and idiosyncrasy. 

Marquis is a libertine writer and a really passionate one at that. He is also a political critique and is known for his erotic literature. Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor and most of the political personnel were against his erotic work, especially because of his accentuation of violence, and blatant elements of Blasphemy. He is institutionalized in an asylum. But he still continues to write and a young girl Madeleine (Kate Winslet) who works at the asylum secretly publishes his books with the help of an anonymous publisher. His books are sold in the black market and due to its very erotic form cannot be stopped from selling because it is human nature to like eroticism!

Madeleine is an illiterate girl learning to read and write from the Warden of the Asylum. She is extremely interested in hearing Sade’s stories. The most amusing part of the movie is how he trades bits of his stories in exchange for a sexual experience with Madeleine. She is extremely interested in the stories, so the outcome is quite amusing for us viewers!

It turns out that the King commands to burn every book that has been published by Sade, and to take away his papers and ‘Quills’ (Ink and pen).

This is the moment that has captured my heart ever since. His passion for writing is extraordinary. He has a madness to write. He starts writing on the bedspread with wine; and Madeleine secretly gets it published, when this is known to the King, he is stripped off his clothes even, and he writes on the wall with his blood. This is the extend of his passion to write!

This was the most exasperating part of the movie! The passion to write, the sheer madness to write, even if it means to drying oneself to death!

And as a matter of fact, ‘Sadism’ is derived from our very own Marquis De Sade!

A must watch!