Sade

In 1794, at the height of France's Reign of Terror, aristocrats are herded into genteel prisons to await the guillotine. Into this bizarre environment, simultaneously resort-like (what with the strolling on the lawn and the courtly manners) and miserable (what with the mass-grave stench of decomposing patricians wafting up from what used to be the garden), comes the Marquis de Sade. No noble, he, but as a libertine and atheist, Sade is a threat to Robespierre's prudish, God-fearing regime...and to the sensibilities of many of his fellow prisoners. As Sade, acclaimed actor Daniel Auteuil (who won a Lumiere, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for his performance here) is dangerously charismatic, not only to the viewer (we haven't seen Sade portrayed in so provocative and sympathetic a manner before), but also to young, virginal Emilie (sweet and subtle Isild Le Besco, who garnered the film's other Lumiere). Sade puts a name to the incoherent longing that Emilie experiences in the face of death, and their pas de deux--of the mind as much as of the body--makes for a treacherously seductive and highly disturbing film. Sade won't be to everyone's taste, but the adventurous will find an intriguing portrait of a man who remains, two centuries later, somewhat of an exiled and misunderstood intellectual. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include an interview with director Benoit Jacquot. Bottom line: a lite extras package for a solid foreign film.] (M. Johanson)