The date is July 13, 1808, exactly 15 years after the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bathtub by 24 year old Charlotte Corday. To commemorate the anniversary (and to show off the hospital's own special brand of art therapy) a group of inmates at Charenton Asylum perform a play recreating Marat's last days, written and directed by the infamous Marquis de Sade. The players include a recovering paranoiac, a narcoleptic also suffering from "melancholia," a sex maniac, a former priest, a former prostitute, and a patient so incensed by his role that he is confined to a straight-jacket the entire time. As the play progresses, delving into the political and social unrest of the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror, the players discuss and debate the purpose of revolution, the horrors of war, the futility of activism, the need for equality, the impossibility of equality, the desire for freedom, the importance of individuality, and the relationship between murder and sexual passion. To start with.
Oh, and it's a musical too.
This is a great movie. One of the most intellectually challenging and rewarding movies I've ever seen. Directed by Peter Brook and performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, it's a filmed version of Peter Weiss' play of the same name. It demands a lot of a viewer. Once it starts, it doesn't give you much room to breathe. It just takes off running and you are forced to keep up with it. It's one of the few movies I've ever seen where I was agreeing and disagreeing with every main character at various points. It's almost too much to take in in one sitting. I've seen it several times and I still feel like there's more to get out of it. I knew next to nothing about the French Revolution going in, but I still felt like I understood the issues at hand. They can just as easily apply to modern American society.
The acting is uniformly excellent. The three main players--Patrick Magee (de Sade), Ian Richardson (Marat), and Glenda Jackson (Corday)--are all outstanding. Magee brings a unique humanity to a man largely considered by history to be a savage pervert. Richardson's Marat is heartbreaking. Endlessly staring ahead, he knows his cause is probably lost but can't give up on it. Jackson is stunning as both the impassioned Corday and the patient desperately trying to spit out her lines before she falls asleep again. There isn't a note out of place in the whole cast. What I can't get over is that these actors had already performed these roles on stage umpteen times before they made the film. That they performed such a challenging play night after night with the same kind of talent, intensity and passion you see on the screen is remarkable.
Marat/Sade is definitely a polarizing film. I wasn't sure I liked it until the second time I watched it. But I couldn't stop thinking about it after the first. It's disturbing, frightening, funny and demanding (sometimes all at the same time), but in my opinion, it's worth seeing at least once.
Oh, and it's a musical too.
This is a great movie. One of the most intellectually challenging and rewarding movies I've ever seen. Directed by Peter Brook and performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, it's a filmed version of Peter Weiss' play of the same name. It demands a lot of a viewer. Once it starts, it doesn't give you much room to breathe. It just takes off running and you are forced to keep up with it. It's one of the few movies I've ever seen where I was agreeing and disagreeing with every main character at various points. It's almost too much to take in in one sitting. I've seen it several times and I still feel like there's more to get out of it. I knew next to nothing about the French Revolution going in, but I still felt like I understood the issues at hand. They can just as easily apply to modern American society.
The acting is uniformly excellent. The three main players--Patrick Magee (de Sade), Ian Richardson (Marat), and Glenda Jackson (Corday)--are all outstanding. Magee brings a unique humanity to a man largely considered by history to be a savage pervert. Richardson's Marat is heartbreaking. Endlessly staring ahead, he knows his cause is probably lost but can't give up on it. Jackson is stunning as both the impassioned Corday and the patient desperately trying to spit out her lines before she falls asleep again. There isn't a note out of place in the whole cast. What I can't get over is that these actors had already performed these roles on stage umpteen times before they made the film. That they performed such a challenging play night after night with the same kind of talent, intensity and passion you see on the screen is remarkable.
Marat/Sade is definitely a polarizing film. I wasn't sure I liked it until the second time I watched it. But I couldn't stop thinking about it after the first. It's disturbing, frightening, funny and demanding (sometimes all at the same time), but in my opinion, it's worth seeing at least once.