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Marat / SadeRating:
Release Date: 12 August, 1998 Retail Price: $24.99 Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Complete Cast (15 total) |
Marat / Sade Reviews
Brillaint and intense
Marat / Sade is an incredible theatrical production that was captured well in this film. Complaints that has been made about the sound quality of the DVD though is well founded but unfortunately this was a problem with the movie when it first appeared in theatres.
The movie takes place on a stage behind bars in asylum of Charenton. Behind the bars as well sit confident arrogant and ignorant asylum's director and his family. Performed is a play written and directed by the Marquis de Sade (Patrick Magee).
In point of fact plays written by de Sade and performed by the inmates of Charenton actually took place. But Peter Brooks takes things to another level as he through the character of Sade poses many questions to the viewer while at the same time shocking the sense. Cleverly the actors are given parts that have something in common with their mental disorder.
This is a musical but probably like no other musical you have ever seen. It is somewhat like some of the Mystery plays of the Middle Ages. There are plays with in plays, clever references made and word play, as like are found in the Mystery plays, to and regarding the actors themselves and the surroundings where they are performing.
The play is about the death of Marat but it is within it is a larger play about the French Revolution. But the play is more than a history lesson. All through it the character playing Marat sits in a bathtub as Sade taunts him. Much of his taunts take the form of long philosophical soliloquies belittling Marat, the Revolution and society in general. Through out the play the inmates fall in and out of character to the symptoms of their various mental illnesses.
The songs are incredibly well integrated into the play and are quite witty and enjoyable -some of them almost joyous.
Comically the director of the asylum, a condescending buffoon, interrupts the play time and again when statements are made that go against the current ideology.
As the play about a revolution concludes a real revolution starts behind the bars and the film ends in chaos.
The final scene is a pan back showing the audience at the bars in which the stage is enclosed. Are they clamoring to get in? Do they too want to be inmates? Do they want to become part of the free for all?
Peter Brooks offers up a beautiful but disturbing movie and vision of the world.
Almost as good as the audio recording.
The only problem that I have with this production is that, for some inexplicable reason, they do the scene of "Marat's Nightmare" in pantomime, completely wasting one of the great portions of the play. The audio recording of this production, which used to be available on Caedmon, includes the scene with the dialogue intact. I would have given the movie version 5 stars but for this disappointing omission. Otherwise, it's an all time classic.
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