[email protected] Peter Brook, for many years the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, has more than once astounded the theater world with his interpretations of familiar plays by Shakespeare and others. Here's the chance for movie-goers to witness his transformative skills in action. Marat/Sade, which I'd seen previously on stage, is a Brechtian political drama about the French revolution performed in a madhouse under the direction of the notorious Marquis de Sade. Brook's retelling takes advantage of the setting by emphasizing the particular insanities of the major players. Marat, portrayed by Ian Richardson, is coldly rational except when he's not. Patrick Magee's de Sade reflects that personality's obsession with cruelty. But the real brilliance of Brook's choices is captured best by Glenda Jackson, who appears as a victim of narcolepsy cast in the role of Charlotte Corday, Marat's assassin. Jackson's character can barely rouse herself to perform. She's confused. Her diction is odd. She's not convincing as Corday, nor is she supposed to be. She's thoroughly convincing, however, an insane person playing someone who is obsessed with Marat. Other brilliant performances are turned in by Michael Williams as the Herald who announces key scenes; Robert Landon Lloyd as Roux a cleric turned revolutionary who is seen most of the time in a strait-jacket because of his violent behavior, John Steiner as Monsieur Depere, a sexual predator who lusts after Jackson's Corday and a quartet of three men and a woman in comedia del' arte garb who comment on the action in song and verse.It is a bizarre film, difficult to watch at times, but brilliant in its execution. I do not believe there is another director alive or dead who could have done what Brooks did with this script and this talented group of actors. Too bad he didn't do more movies.

Sunflower64 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.

carausius This movie is about a play the inmates of a Charenton lunatics asylum are supposed to perform in 1808, under the direction of the former marquis De Sade, one of them. The main character is Marat, a nobody, who became one of the most blood thirsty leaders of the French Revolution. He was himself murdered by Charlotte Corday, a young woman from Caen in Normandy, who was supposedly a descendant of the great Corneille, who wrote "Le Cid", probably the most famous of French tragedies of the Golden Age. This is filmed theater, not very interesting, and even rather boring. But one has to acknowledge that Glenda Jackson's performance is stunning. She probably never was a pretty woman, just average, and now, as she grew older, she's quite ugly. But she had that flame in her eyes...

middleburg When Marat/Sade was first shown--those of us used to the traditional Hollywood film entertainments were just stunned. What a tour de force of acting, story, makeup, style, filming and music. We didn't know what to make of it. On the one hand it was the scariest, most disturbing film we had seen, on the otherhand it was a grand entertainment with absolutely intriguing characters. Was it historically accurate? Is it a dream? Was that really supposed to be theMarquis de Sade up on the screen? The film has amazing bookends: Theopening film credits appearing in complete silence one word at a time and then disappearing one word at a time, has to be sort of a classic of film titles-- anticipating the minimalist art movements in the visual arts. Before the film even begins, we are off kilter, completely disoriented. The horrifying ending at the time was a shocker. One is really unprepared for this spectacular brutality--and the fact that it just ends in the midst of the chaos with zero resolution again is totally disorienting. This remains a great film--with some of the most amazing acting ever caught on screen. For most of us here in the U.S., it was the first time we saw Glenda Jackson. Her voice, her presence, her amazing actingtechnique--she became instantaneously recognized as one of the great screenactresses. And sure enough shortly thereafter, she won her two academyawards. If you enjoy great theatre, and great film treatments of theatricalmaterial--this film is simply not to be missed.