
Marat/Sade
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade, usually shortened to Marat/Sade, is a 1967 British film adaptation of Peter Weiss' play Marat/Sade. The screen adaptation is directed by Peter Brook, and originated in his theatre production for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The English version was written by Adrian Mitchell from a translation by Geoffrey Skelton.
Plot
In the Charenton Asylum in 1808, the Marquis de Sade stages a play about the murder of Jean-Paul Marat by Charlotte Corday, using his fellow inmates as actors. The director of the hospital, Monsieur Coulmier, supervises the performance, accompanied by his wife and daughter. Coulmier, who supports Napoleon's government, believes that the play will support his bourgeois and reactionary ideas, and denounce those of the more radical stages of the French Revolution that Marat helped lead. His patients, however, have other ideas, and they make a habit of speaking lines he had attempted to suppress, or deviating entirely into personal opinion. The Marquis himself, meanwhile, subtly manipulates both the players and the audience to create an atmosphere of chaos and nihilism that ultimately brings on an orgy of destruction.
Cast
- Daniel Auteuil
- Daniel Martin
- Dominique Reymond
- Éric Théobald
- Francis Leplay
- François Levantal
- Frédérique Tirmont
- Grégoire Colin
- Isild Le Besco
- Jalil Lespert
- Jean-Pierre Cassel
- Jeanne Balibar
- Laurent Stocker
- Marianne Denicourt
- Philippe Duquesne
- Raymond Gérôme
- Scali Delpeyrat
- Sylvie Testud
- Vincent Branchet
More details
author | Bernard Minoret Jacques Fieschi Serge Bramly |
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director | Benoît Jacquot |
editor | Tom Priestley |
genre | drama historical political |
keywords | abbé de coulmier bourgeois charenton charenton asylum charlotte corday french revolution jean-paul marat marquis de sade monsieur coulmier napoleon nihilism reactionary speak |
musicBy | Francis Poulenc |
producer | Michael Birkett |
publisher | United Artists |
recordedAt | Aix-en-Provence |