Quills - Philip Kaufman

Quills directed by Philip Kaufman is a really interesting film that received three Academy Award Nominations back in 2000. It was written by Doug Wright based on the play that he also wrote. The play never made it to Broadway, though one of his first plays did, and he has written the books for a few musicals.

Quills is the story of the Marquise de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) who is imprisoned in an insane asylum - Charenton. It imagines his last few days there. The asylum is run by Abbé de Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix), and it eventually gets some assistance from by Dr. Royer-Collard (Michael Caine). While de Sade is in there, Coulmier has told him to write to try to exorcise whatever demons he is fighting out of his system. This is a common practice - journaling, and blogging are aspects of it. When a person is working through a troubled time, it helps to write down their thoughts which helps get those thoughts out of they system. In Sade's situation though, the thoughts were all the things he is now known for. The film has a laundry woman (Kate Winslet) smuggle out his writings which then get published. This causes an uproar in Napoleon's court and so Caine's character is sent to the asylum to put it into order and stop this "pornography" from being written and getting out to the public. Of course, there are complications, but you'll have to watch the film to see those. Oh, there is also a character played by Stephen Moyer....of True Blood fame.

I believe I first read the script for the play before I saw the film. The script is fantastic! It has some gore to it and would be interesting to stage and see. I think the first show of Wright's that I ever saw was a piece called Interrogating the Nude. It was about Marcel Duchamp. I swear that it was done by Park Square Theater here in the Twin Cities but I can't find it on their site so maybe not. That was also a really fantastic and interesting script and story. Because of it I purchased a collection of scripts by Doug Wright - and Quills was one of those. I may have to re-read it and see about setting up a production. Any which way - the movie is very good. The score is gorgeous and the costuming is very good as well. It is well directed, getting you interested at the start and bringing you through to the very end. So good. While for me the film is not a keeper, it is one that I recommend watching.