The dissolute life of the Marquis de Sade
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The dissolute life of the Marquis de Sade |
| Original title | De Sade |
| Country of production |
United States Germany |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1969 |
| length | 96, 100, 113 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Cy Endfield |
| script |
Richard Matheson Peter Berg |
| production |
Samuel Z. Arkoff James H. Nicholson for AIP (Los Angeles) Artur Brauner for CCC (Berlin) |
| music | Billy Strange |
| camera |
Richard Angst Heinz Pehlke |
| cut | Hermann Haller |
| occupation | |
| |
The Dissolute Life of the Marquis de Sade is an American-German feature film from 1969 with Keir Dullea in the title role and Senta Berger , Lilli Palmer and Sonja Ziemann as his partners.
action
The aged Marquis de Sade, who has escaped from an insane asylum, returns to the family's own castle and, like a hallucinatory performance, gets into the staging of his own life. The master of ceremonies is Louis' own uncle, who is as desolate as he is voluptuous Abbé de Sade. His lived life curls up in front of Louis. Like a spectator in the stalls, the marquis gets an insight into his childhood, sees how his parents and the Montreuils make a deal with each other. De Sade must recognize that he himself is the focus of this unfortunate pact, and it is about nothing more and nothing less than his arranged marriage to the uglier of the two Montreuil daughters, Renée, not Anne, as de Sade believed. Then he sees Anne, who has observed the eerie deal, horrified, running through the castle corridors.
From then on, the young Marquis de Sade defied all conventions. He complies with his parents' wishes and marries Renée, who appears to be extremely brittle in bed on the wedding night, but from then on chases through the beds of other beautiful women and indulges in extensive orgies with wine, women and song. De Sade quickly shows a sadistic streak; he can only feel joy with the joy girls when it is allowed to hit it, no matter whether its paid whores like it or not. For this inclination he is arrested one day for the first time by gendarmes straight from the lotter bed and thrown into a dungeon. In order to keep the lecher away from her daughter Anne, her mother decides to send the lovely innocence to a monastery far from the Marquis. De Sade remains true to his reputation even as a husband and continues to enjoy herself with women of all levels and ages: with the young talented singer Colette as well as with the somewhat more mature Mademoiselle La Beauvoisin.
Back in the stage version of his life, de Sade takes aim at the chastisements by his uncle, the Abbé, and mocks him in his theatrical performance. He also shows that his blows with the riding crop hurt the tender boy of yore as well as it had a lasting impact and put a lasting strain on the relationship with his uncle, whom de Sade mocked as an old lecher. And yet these punishments, painful and traumatic as they must have been in childhood, have awakened de Sade's secret desire for more pain and the pleasure that goes with it. While the audience hoots with enthusiasm, the Abbé sits petrified in his box as the mirror of his own actions of yore is held up to him. Then the Abbé leads the Marquis into a crypt, where Louis sees his own father laid out in a coffin. Confronted with the past, where his father was just resting in the coffin lies his baby from the unwanted connection with Renée. Anne is also present when the child is baptized. When she runs away, Louis rushes after her and wants to catch her. But behind the veil, Rose suddenly appears, a prostitute with whom he can act out his sadistic inclinations: first Louis ties her up, then he spanks her naked bottom with his sword. For this involuntarily granted "favor" de Sade's mother-in-law then has to dig deep into her pocket to buy Rose's silence about Louis' perverse inclinations. Madame de Montreuil then reads him the riot act properly and immediately tightened the thumbscrews.
De Sade's subsequent encounter with Anne is also only an illusion and of very short duration. It disappears just as enigmatically as it suddenly appeared in the auditorium of his own staging of life. Soon de Sade's delusional stagings become more and more drastic and brutal, Louis, who is handing out massive blows, is himself beaten. If he soon believes himself in the dungeon for the crimes he has committed, with his eyes fixed on Abbé de Sade in the theater box, he wakes up as if from a nightmare during a carriage ride next to his beloved Anne. Finally, the two of them have a stormy night of love, which is suddenly interrupted by another arrest of de Sade. While looking in the mirror of his prison cell, Louis hears a dialogue between Anne and her mother, who tries to talk her younger daughter out of the Marquis. In another mirror scene, the prisoner has to watch how Uncle Abbé himself cannot keep his hands off Anne. Then Louis smashes the small mirror. When Madame de Montreuil visits him in the dungeon, she reproaches him bitterly in view of his unbridled conduct and accuses him of being responsible for Anne's death. Marquis de Sade then asks her for forgiveness. She says goodbye to him by saying that he will die here, behind the prison walls. She should be right.
In the final theater production of his life, de Sade is now going through his own court hearing in which he is accused of numerous atrocities. It is said to be vicious, degenerate and morally rotten. Witnesses to his moral decline are called up, one after the other testifying. Finally even Anne steps out on the gallery and declaims: "He is my murderer!" In a final, surpassing orgy of lust and destruction, de Sade rages until he wakes up in his prison cell. He has grown very old and is on his death bed. Next to him sits the last woman who stayed: a nun who takes care of him and cares for his soul.
production
The dissolute life of the Marquis de Sade was filmed in Germany from October 21, 1968 to January 16, 1969. The few outdoor shots were taken near Veste Coburg , the studio scenes in Artur Brauner's CCC film studios in Berlin. The premiere was on August 27, 1969 in Hollywood , the German premiere on August 28, 1970.
Peter Hahne was in charge of production in Germany, and Hans-Jürgen Kiebach designed the film structures . Keir Dullea was given the lead due to the great success he had immediately prior to Stanley Kubrick's classic science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey .
For Sonja Ziemann and Susanne von Almassy this was their last movie. In this film, several young actors complete short nude appearances in de Sade's hunt through the beds and in the orgy scenes, including Christiane Krüger , Barbara Stanek and Uta Levka .
The majority of the organization scenes were recorded with a red filter .
Reviews
Vincent Canby wrote in 1969 in the New York Times : "DE SADE," which the producer's press agent once described as "a film biography of the great 18th century writer and sadist," is not quite as silly as it looks and sounds, but it comes very close. It successfully reduces one of the most fascinating figures of world literature to the role of not-so-straight man in a series of naughty tableaux vivants. (...) Orgies occur at regular intervals throughout the film, like toe-tap numbers in a Busby Berkeley musical, but the only shocking thing about them is the pink color in which they're photographed. According to Cy Endfield, who directed the film, and Richard Matheson, who wrote it, the extent of Sade's inhuman, perverted , unnatural, lecherous, depraved behavior was a fondness for bare bosoms and round bottoms. No movie about the old marquis can be completely bereft of interest, however, and "De Sade" does have its moments, some less foolish than others. "
“A lavishly equipped co-production that understands the marquis as a product of the evil influence of his uncle, a clergyman, as well as aristocratic intrigues and police arbitrariness, with scenes from madness and reality, the present and the past, real life and stage play being superimposed. De Sade's cultural and historical significance is of course clearly secondary to erotic events; impressively played in the title role. "
"Equipment film whose main focus is on a bland nudity and perversity show - we advise against it."
Leonard Maltin wrote: “If you were expecting something slippery, forget it. Pretty lukewarm stuff ”.
Halliwell's Film Guide found: “Moderately interesting attempt by the AIP in matters of European debauchery, with a good theater framework for the fantasies, but with too much hectic participants, especially in the slow-motion organ scenes, which are just as ruthlessly boring as the whole Movie."
The evangelical film observer , on the other hand, has a positive opinion of the film : “A more psychological film with a large cast of stars, good acting performances, a commendable director and camera. Not a film for voyeurs, but for a mature audience that can look forward to problematic subjects and is ready to think along with the cultural-historical and time-critical statements of the film, which are relevant again today. "
Web links
- The dissolute life of the Marquis de Sade in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The dissolute life of the Marquis de Sade at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Roger Corman also worked unnamed in the direction (according to some sources Gordon Hessler should also have been involved, which he always denied in interviews - see e.g. here: http://www.dvddrive-in.com/hessler .htm )
- ↑ other sources cite September 26, 1970
- ↑ The New York Times, September 26, 1969. Translation: (The film) DE SADE, which the producer's press officer once described as "the biography of a great writer and sadist of the 18th century" is not quite as stupid as it looks and sounds like, but it comes pretty close. He actually succeeds in reducing one of the most fascinating personalities in world literature to the role of a not so straightforward man in a sequence of living images. Orgies take place at regular intervals, like tap dance interludes in a Busby Berkeley musical, but the only shocking thing about it are the camera shots bathed in pink. According to Cy Endfield, who directed the film, and Richard Matheson, who wrote the screenplay, the extent of de Sade's inhumane, perverted, unnatural, lustful, and depraved behavior was limited to his preference for bare breasts and round asses. No film about the old Marquis can ultimately be completely without interest, and "De Sade" also has its moments, some less stupid than others.
- ↑ The dissolute life of the Marquis de Sade. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Movie & Video Guide , 1996 edition, p. 324.
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide , Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 255
- ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 378/1970