Quills

It’s 1794. Notorious French pornographer Marquis de Sade (Geoffrey Rush) is incarcerated in an insane asylum. A virgin laundry maid (Kate Winslett) smuggles his literary sexual fantasies and overripe prose into the public domain while men of science (Michael Caine) and the cloth (Joaquin Phoenix) try to curb the prolific scribe. Director Philip Kaufman’s lush production about hypocrisy, censorship and the dark side of eroticism thrusts us into a battle of free speech, exploring the power and consequences of art. Doug Wright adapted the script from his 1995 Obie-winning play.