That was an excellent one.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Blistering performances.

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...

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.The title pretty much sums up this powerfully visualized "play", set in 1808, during France's supposed success rate at educating the insane. This play by de Sade which is a scathing dissection of the French Revolution using Marat as the voice for the war as the Marquis takes the role against it. Morality obviously being this is a play from Marquis de Sade is also under the microscope as those that are insane fulfill certain roles under the celebrated masochist's direction. Monsieur Coulmier(Clifford Rose)is the mediator watching de Sade's behavior regarding what his script can and can not say. Blasphemy in this supposed golden age of France can not be warranted so Coulmier, with the assistance of nuns and guards inside, try to keep the deranged--and de Sade--in check.The play itself is told through not only the characters written on page, but from the insane themselves who often intervene on their own behalf. The ending is a fine slap in the face of the so-called success the French asylums seemed to have employed as the maniacs, after finishing, attack all the normal folk inside(two aristocratic women are audience members inside the cell--what were they thinking?)as Marquis relishes the chaos with glee.The staged film is disturbing, bleak, but profound and spellbinding. The way the camera moves throughout the cell(and several shots through the bars and on the darkened audience outside the cell)is hypnotic and deeply luridly fascinating. The cast is so good, they really convinced me I was watching a directed play using loonies!

This film and play were especially popular in the 60s, because at that time you could get an audience by promising lots of violence and sex on stage (although this movie is mild compared to the current crop). Marat/Sade became one of those things that the "in crowd" had to claim to have seen. The actors in the original production (look for Glenda Jackson's comments) hated the play because it was so harrowing and demanding; it grates upon the audience, too. If you enjoy lots of pretentious posing, shouting, and gratuitous rudeness, then submit yourself to this agonizing bit of cinema.One good thing: watching this film finally clarified for me where the Bonzo Dog Band got the song line: "We are normal and we want our freedom!" Which is what I began to shout about 20 minutes in...

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.