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THE MANIFESTO IS MUTATING! IT IS TURNING INTO A WIKI THAT CAN BECOME THE HIVE MIND OF ALL COSTUMERS, FINALLY LIVING UP TO IT'S SLOGAN: "COSTUMERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!" YOU CAN HELP IN THIS PROCESS BY MOVING PAGES TO THE NEW SITE AT THECOSTUMERSMANIFESTO.COM, HELPING TO EDIT THE PAGES THAT ARE THERE ALREADY, AND ADDING YOUR OWN ORIGINAL INPUT. |
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Tara's Quills & Marat/Sade Page
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| Quills: The Play The Film Links Marat/Sade: Marquis Related Information:
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Quills, the play by Doug Wright Quills by Doug Wright, Play script in Paperback
Quills (2000 film) An interestingly grim fairytale, with a violent, yet wickedly funny twist, this is my favorite film for 2000. While having excellent design and directing, the two strongest features are the screenplay (also by Doug Wright), and the actors' performances. To give you a taste of both, I recommend seeing the clip Quills "The Tale of a Virginal Laundry-lass" to see how beautifully the film combines plot, humor and character development. From the opening scene, where a beautiful guillotine victim appears to be finding a kinky arousal in the process of her execution, to the last, where a saintly young priest is seen madly scribbling a pornographic tale to alleviate his insanity, the whole film has a naughty, funny tinge, that makes it enjoyably to watch, despite all one's favorite characters ending badly. The film Script also by Doug Wright is markedly different from the play, concentrating a great deal on the most likeable and sane character, Madeline, played by the estimable Kate Winslet. The Marquis de Sade, as played by Geoffrey Rush, is like the original Marquis, selfish, spoiled, lewd, rude, and insulting, yet somehow manages to, (as the original was said to) be curiously lovable and charming. Rush, it should be noted, does this while being physically as unlike the original as possible, Sade was in his 70's and a bit pudgy, Rush is 49 and bony. His lack of physical resemblance however doesn't come close to matching Joaquin Phoenix's for the role of Abbe Coulmier. Coulmier was a 4 foot tall dwarf.
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 Quills Soundtrack album Quills (2000) Photos copyright Fox/Searchlight Productions:
(Yes, I know the delectable Joaquin Phoenix is in this film too, but his clothes aren't terribly interesting, and this page is part of a Costume site) |
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Marat/Sade
is the shortened title of the play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean Paul Marat as performed by the Inmates of the Asylum at Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade by Peter Weiss.
Marat /Sade and other Plays by Peter Weiss Marat/Sade Script This German play is, as the title implies, entirely a play-within-a-play where most cast members depict both a character from the French Revolution as well as an insane asylum inmate playing that character. This play, while it also addresses censorship, is primarily concerned with a debate between Marat as a sort of representative of revolutionary radical communism, and de Sade as a kind of nihilistic existentialist frustrated with his own, and society's violently cruel urges, as well as the futility of revolutionary action to improve mankind. Despite this very heavy and multi-layered topic, the filmed production of the play (below) also manages to be both sexy and funny in regular intervals. I designed costumes for a production of the play in 1989 at Theatre UAF. It is one of my all-time favorite plays because of the sheer density of meaning in it. The play is set in the asylum in 1808 in the Napoleonic era, and the play within it is set in 1793 during the Revolutionary era. Most of the dialogue has relevance to political criticism in both eras. If that were not enough, it also has levels that are clearly evoking the era that Weiss was writing in (the 1960's) and also Germany's recent (Holocaust/WWII) past. Some passages in the play, most notably those relating to war, manage to have a level of meaning for ALL FOUR eras at once! Add to this the delightful theatricality and musical numbers (really) of the play, and it is little wonder that it has regularly been performed around the world ever since it was written. As a footnote, Geoffrey Rush, who plays the Marquis de Sade in the film of Quills, incidentally played Jean-Paul Marat, in an Australian stage production of Marat/Sade some time ago.
The Film of the Royal Shakespeare
Company production of Marat/Sade (1967) is considered a classic avant garde
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Colonial Wig
Marie Antoinette Wig
Haunted house trick Guillotine
Marat / Sade VHS
The
Invention of Pornography : Obscenity and the Origins of Modernity, 1500-1800
The
Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France
The Fan-Maker's Inquisition : A Novel of the Marquis De Sade (Ballantine Reader's Circle)