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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- No, really ... I was pushing that sheep through the fence!, 25 September 2006 Author: F Gwynplaine MacIntyre (Borroloola@earthlink.net) from Minffordd, North Wales
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SEXUAL CONTENT WHICH MAY BE DISTRESSING TO SOME READERS.'Marquis' is the only film I've ever seen by the oddly-named Henri Xhonneux, but it's so imaginative and entertaining that I'm eager to see more of his work. 'Marquis' alleges to be based on incidents in the life and novels of the Marquis de Sade. If you're seeking a "Cliff Notes" crib-sheet about de Sade or his works, look elsewhere. On its own merits, though, this film is highly enjoyable for those with a taste for the bizarre.Some of the activities of the real-life Marquis de Sade were downright contemptible, but I intensely admire the tremendous efforts he took to write down his prose in prison (where he was forbidden to possess paper or writing implements) and to smuggle his text out of prison for publication. I was intrigued to learn that the Marquis was a prisoner in the Bastille until only a few days before it was captured by the revolutionaries in 1789; it now appears that de Sade actively fomented the riot of Bastille Day, shouting to the people outside that there were weapons and allies within the prison.IMDb lists 'Marquis' as an animated film, but that's only partly accurate. The animation occurs chiefly in the sequences in which the Marquis de Sade has long heart-to-heart talks with his own penis! The penis has a small human face (upturned, oddly) and a voice and personality of its own.All the characters in this film are anthropomorphised animals, walking upright and played by human dancers in elaborate costumes and masks. (I thought these were even more impressive than the ones used in the Beatrix Potter ballet film.) Thus, for example, de Sade's Justine is a white mare, dressed in a dominatrix costume which displays her very shapely human figure! Juliette is a cow, only slightly less pulchritudinous than Justine. The characters' dialogue is post-dubbed by voice artists, and the credits generously list both the performers who embody the characters and the voice artists on the soundtrack.The filmmakers cleverly match the personalities of the various characters to appropriate animal species. Still, I was pulled up short by one scene in a coffee-house. More than a dozen species of land-based animals are interacting, and then into the room walks a fish! Somehow, it felt wrong to see an aquatic species among the land beasties. Thankfully, all of the voice artists speak normally, rather than trying to moo or whinny their dialogue.The Marquis spends most of the film in prison, where he is harangued by his warder: a rat who is obsessed with being buggered by the Marquis. (He is apparently unaware that the Marquis's penis has its own thoughts on this matter.) I found the rat character implausible: as a warder, unlike his inmates he can go home at night and find sexual release outside the prison.There's lots of hearty comedy here, not all of it sexual ... but the sexual content is deeply aberrant throughout the film, so 'Marquis' is not for all audiences. The animal costumes are so intensely detailed that there's an atmosphere of bestiality throughout this sexually-charged comedy. I'll rate 'Marquis' 9 out of 10.
4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- Deliciously decadent and devious, 24 May 1999 Author: Baroque
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.)
2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :- Animatronics and lust, 29 September 2006 Author: Nice Guy from USA
This is an absurd -not in a bad way- interpretation of the imprisonment of the Marquis de Sade with a French revolution framework. not surprising, it is made by Topor, a cartoonist. The storytelling of Sade's life is mixed with his phantasms to make the storytelling unique and interesting. Better than a dry historic rendering.The movie is made with animatronics, i.e. men in costumes with faces which are animated, and once a while clay animation. Every person is an animal that kinda represents externally his personality. Sade is a dog with a big penis -his head is a brain- with which he argues.All the characters are perverted in their own way.Strangely in 1989 it was rated 12 or older, and I think it should be R, it's intellectual, but since there's absurd sex scenes, perversion galore, and some descriptions of Sade's stories that could be quite disturbing.Technically, I like how the animatronics make this universe work. Very stylish...
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- ehh.., 25 June 2002 Author: ethylester from Michigan
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.
4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- not a good 'first date' movie, 3 April 2006 Author: raveseen from Tralfamador
i was impressed by the variety of animation techniques in this film. Marquis played at the 'art' movie house in salt lake, which was across the street from where i worked. this was the kind of theater that only played movies for 2 or 3 days, and their schedule only described it as 'animated'.long story short, i invited a girl to see this as our first date. while i was amazed by the animation and found some of the dialog/situations to be humorous, i felt quite awkward under the circumstances. luckily, she wasn't too offended, and even found the Marquis' talking, um, body part rather cute.i have tried to find this movie several times over the years, if only to see if it was really as crazy as i recall.
Interesting...at least, 11 May 2009 Author: The_Void from Beverley Hills, England
There's plenty of films about the Marquis de Sade (their purpose and effectiveness being rather varied); but this one stands out from them all due to it's style and execution...both of which are extremely weird to say the least. The film grabs you right from the start with the bizarre character costumes; but unfortunately doesn't manage to keep the interest throughout, despite a number of very good and amusing ideas. I really do admire what director Henri Xhonneux was trying to do; but unfortunately, the otherworldly style of the film and general artiness leaves it feeling cold and distant long before the end. The film focuses on the Marquis de Sade during his imprisonment in the Bastille. His only desire is to write erotic novels; but there's debauchery going on all around him. A corrupt priest arranges for a woman who was impregnated by the king to be raped by the Marquis de Sade so as to excuse the king, while also stealing the Marquis' literary works to sell for his own profit.The costumes used in the film are interesting to say the least and are all a cross between humans and some sort of animal. This gives the film a style all of its own, which is very much to its credit. This does, however, leave the story and characters as co-stars; as while the audience is likely to be fascinated by the costumes, the plot is not nearly as interesting; which is unfortunate. I've also got to say that the style didn't really work for me - it's interesting, but inherently ugly; me being a viewer who enjoys visually pleasing aesthetics. The most interesting and original idea in the film has to be the one that sees the lead character talking to his penis; which happens to have it's own face and personality. It works rather well and helps to increase the overall strangeness of the film. There's no shortage of debauchery in the film; although its impact is quelled somewhat by the style, which at times verges on being childish. Overall, this film will certainly be of interest to those that enjoy original films. I'm glad I saw it but wouldn't call it a favourite!
2 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Curiouser and curiouser, 4 February 2002 Author: Alcibiade del Mezzogiorno (alberich68@hotmail.com)
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.
0 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- fallen art, 30 March 2008 Author: stalker vogler from Xanadu
This is a dull exercise in…nothing, not even style. It's not that I resent de Sade related issues but the movies that tackled his writings always had something cheap in them. From the Franco "attempts" in the sixties and seventies to the more modern Quills I am left wandering what is in the head of the movie-makers that persist in drawing endless glosses on Justine and Juliette. De Sade was a sensation during his age because he was rather off base and had a life filled with debauchery and perversion. Justine is actually an interesting literary work, far from great but good for entertainment purposes and to see what could have entered the mind of a man from the period. Roland Topor is a darling of queerness, from his novel Le Locataire and his role as Renfield in Herzog's Nosferatu to his artistic design in this movie he never ceases to surprise. There are a few good ideas here, the Marquis talking to his penis (face and brain and personality of its own), the representation of animal lust through animal costumes. But much of the film seems too contrived. It tries to show the real thing in the most artificial manner possible, much like the Marquis himself in his books. But that also takes away the beauty of the decadent style we have come to associate with de Sade. Seeing not a woman but a cow and thinking women are only cows good enough to be milked by misogynistic males gets the story "straight" but forces us to the superficial level of immediate perception. Sade was great in what he did because he managed to maintain the veil of hypocrisy and ignorance intact and at the same time showing what was underneath. His style was very "light" inviting his audience to divert themselves in the most unthinkable for that age acts of voyeurism He was a man of his time and would have probably hated to live today when sex is something more present in our lives than anything else. I think the movie fails to convey Sade's intentions and doesn't have the edgy quality that would have made it something challenging for today's viewer. Its problem is not the explicit character but the lack of it. I am really looking forward to a director that will finally break all the clichés and give us an insolent, pornographic, violent and gut-wrenching movie based on de Sade instead of these impotent, artsy attempts at a style that barely manage to elicit a yawn
1 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Unusual to Say the Least, 5 January 2001 Author: snelling from Western NY
Until I saw 'Quills' I thought I had repressed the memory of this weird animated take on the Marquis de Sade. A man is imprisoned and spends his time talking to his equally animated penis who has opinions of his own.It's been awhile since I even thought about this film but I don't remember hating it, though nobody I knew would go with me to see it. Every character is represented by an talking human/animal. The marquis slides his member through a crack in between the loose rocks in his cell and hurts himself pretty badly. He cuts himself open to use his own blood to write his stories. A cow/woman gets raped and produces milk/blood out of her udders which is grotesque.I guess the story is riveting if you're in the theatre with nowhere else to go. Otherwise, you may find yourself returning to the place where you rented this, complaining to the management. Sorry I couldn't be of more help in this review, but it was over ten years ago.
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