Review of Sade (2000) by Boob R — 31 May 2005

[font=Arial]Whoa. I'm surprised Sade barely made a Fresh rating. I'm also surprised some critics seem to blame Daniel Auteuil for "the film not revealing enough about Sade's real character." If Auteuil did a bad job, please chuck everything Jeremy Irons ever did straight out the window and paint me blue. A highly engaging film. Yes, it's very cerebral, but I tend to think Sade probably was. I also think critics berrating the film for the lack of strictly erotic content ought to listen a bit more to what Sade's character said in the latter half of the film instead of waiting with the Kleenex. I loved the cinematography and editing - mostly very quick, but such a variety of clever framing. In my opinion, while Girl with a Pearl Earring sat on shots forever each time there was something to be conveyed, Sade whizzed through excellent shot after excellent shot in a highly appreciable depth of planning. There was one exact point where I realised the film had suddenly taken off and was dragging me along with it. I like it when that happens.

What I liked most was the juxtaposition of roughness in different men, but how Sade had a way of getting away with what he wanted. I also liked how the film showed Sade mellowing, but still unable to resist certain vices. He'd worked out how he wanted to live his life, and appeared to fear little, but he seemed to lapse every now and then. His greatest interest, of course, was people, and walking a line between rebellion and loneliness can only be sucessful if you're extremely charming.

At first it appears that the title of the film is misleading, because you don't find out all that much about the most famous aspects of his life, but the dropping of the Marquis title is both a necessarily accurate fact, because he was evading capture as a "noble", and a succinct statement about the particular period in his life under scrutiny. The interplay between the reduced title and the reaction Sade still enjoyed at Picpus was handled well.

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