![Sade-Biberstein](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Sade-Biberstein.jpg)
There have been many and varied references to the
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine sexuality as well as numerous accusat ...
in
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
, including fictional works, biographies and more minor references. The namesake of the
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries between t ...
and
subcultural term ''
sadism'', his name is used variously to evoke
sexual violence
Sexual violence is any sexual act or attempt to obtain a sexual act by violence or coercion, act to traffic a person, or act directed against a person's sexuality, regardless of the relationship to the victim.World Health Organization., World re ...
, licentiousness and
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
.
[Phillips, John, 2005, ''The Marquis De Sade: A Very Short Introduction'', Oxford University Press, .] In modern culture his works are simultaneously viewed as masterful analyses of how power and economics work, and as erotica.
[Guins, Raiford, and Cruz, Omayra Zaragoza, 2005, ''Popular Culture: A Reader'', Sage Publications, .] Sade's sexually explicit works were a medium for the articulation of the corrupt and hypocritical values of the elite in his society, which caused him to become imprisoned. He thus became a symbol of the artist's struggle with the censor. Sade's use of pornographic devices to create provocative works that subvert the prevailing moral values of his time inspired many other artists in a variety of media. The cruelties depicted in his works gave rise to the concept of sadism. Sade's works have to this day been kept alive by artists and intellectuals because they espouse a philosophy of extreme individualism that became reality in the economic liberalism of the following centuries.
[MacNair, Brian, 2002, ''Striptease Culture: Sex, Media and the Democratization of Desire'', Routledge, .]
There has been a resurgence of interest in Sade in the past fifty years. Leading French intellectuals like
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popular ...
,
Jacques Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida; See also . 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in numerous texts, and which was developed t ...
and
Michel Foucault
Paul-Michel Foucault (, ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic. Foucault's theories primarily address the relationship between power and knowledge, and how ...
have published studies of Sade. There has been continuing interest in Sade by scholars and artists in recent years.
[
]
Plays
* The play by Peter Weiss titled ''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'', or ''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'' (german: Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgrupp ...
'' for short, is a fictional account of Sade directing a play in Charenton, where he was confined for many years. In the play, the Marquis de Sade is used as a cynical representative of the spirit of the senses. He debates Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...
who represents the spirit of revolution.[Dancyger, Ken, 2002, ''The Technique of Film and Video Editing: History, Theory, and Practice'', Focal Press, .]
* The Japanese writer Yukio Mishima wrote a play titled ''Madame de Sade
''Madame de Sade'' is a 1965 play written by Yukio Mishima. It was first published in English, translated by Donald Keene by Grove Press and is currently out of print.
''Madame de Sade'' is a historical fiction play written by Mishima Yukio and ...
''.
* The Canadian writer/actor Barry Yzereef Barry may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name
* Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 195 ...
wrote a play titled ''Sade'', a one-man show set in Vincennes prison.
* Doug Wright
Douglas Wright (born December 20, 1962) is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play ''I Am My Own Wife''.
Early years
Wright was born in Dallas, Texas. He attended and ...
wrote a play, ''Quills'', a surreal account of the attempts of the Charenton governors to censor the Marquis' writing, which was adapted into the slightly less surreal film of the same name.
Films
Visual representations of Sade in film first began to appear during the surrealist period.[ While there are numerous ]pornographic film
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...
s based on his themes, the following is a list of the more significant representations:
* ''L'Age d'Or
''L'Age d'Or'' (french: L'Âge d'Or, ), commonly translated as ''The Golden Age'' or ''Age of Gold'', is a 1930 French surrealist satirical comedy film directed by Luis Buñuel about the insanities of modern life, the hypocrisy of the sexual m ...
'' (1930), the collaboration between filmmaker Luis Buñuel and surrealist artist Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
. The final segment of the film provides a coda to Sade's ''The 120 Days of Sodom'', with the four debauched noblemen emerging from their mountain retreat.[
* '']The Skull
''The Skull'' is a 1965 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis for Amicus Productions, and starring the frequently paired horror actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, alongside Patrick Wymark, Jill Bennett, Nigel Green, P ...
'' (1966), British horror film based on Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small ...
's short story "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade." Peter Cushing plays a collector who becomes possessed by the evil spirit of the Marquis when he adds Sade's stolen skull to his collection. The Marquis appears in a prologue as a decomposing corpse dug up by a 19th-century graverobber. In another scene, a character gives a brief, fictionalized account of Sade's life, emphasizing his "boogeyman" reputation.
* The film ''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'' (german: Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgrupp ...
'' (1966) directed by Peter Brook, who also directed the first English-language stage production. Patrick Magee plays the Marquis.[
* '' Marquis de Sade: Justine'' (1968), directed by ]Jesús Franco
Jesús Franco Manera (12 May 1930 – 2 April 2013) was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor, known as a prolific director of low-budget exploitation film, exploitation and B-movies. In a career spanning from 1959 to 2013, he wrote, directe ...
. Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski (, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski 18 October 1926 – 23 November 1991) was a German actor, equally renowned for his intense performance style and notorious for his volatile personality. He appeared in over 130 film roles in a c ...
appears as Sade, writing the tale in his prison cell.
* ''Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion
''Eugenie… The Story of Her Journey into Perversion'' is a 1970 British sexploitation horror film directed by Jesús Franco, and starring Maria Rohm, Marie Liljedahl, Jack Taylor, and Christopher Lee. A modern-day adaptation of the Marquis d ...
'' also known as ''Philosophy in the Boudoir'' (1969). Another Franco film, this one featuring Christopher Lee
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee (27 May 1922 – 7 June 2015) was an English actor and singer. In a long career spanning more than 60 years, Lee often portrayed villains, and appeared as Count Dracula in seven Hammer Horror films, ultimat ...
as Dolmance.
* ''De Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine human sexuality, sexuality as well as n ...
'' (1969), romanticized biography scripted by Richard Matheson and directed by Cy Endfield. The film more or less presents the major incidents of Sade's life as we know them, though in a very hallucinatory fashion. The film's nudity and sexual content was notorious at the time of release, and ''Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'' ran a spread based around it. Keir Dullea
Keir Atwood Dullea (; born May 30, 1936) is an American actor. He played astronaut David Bowman in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' and its 1984 sequel, '' 2010: The Year We Make Contact''. His other film roles include '' David and Lisa ...
plays the Marquis (here named Louis Alphonse Donatien) in a cast that includes Lilli Palmer, Senta Berger, Anna Massey and John Huston
John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter, actor and visual artist. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered ...
.
* '' Eugenie de Sade'' (1970), another of Jesús Franco
Jesús Franco Manera (12 May 1930 – 2 April 2013) was a Spanish filmmaker, composer, and actor, known as a prolific director of low-budget exploitation film, exploitation and B-movies. In a career spanning from 1959 to 2013, he wrote, directe ...
's adaptations. Adapts Sade's story "Eugenie de Franval", accurately, though set in the 20th century.
* '' Beyond Love and Evil'' (1971), original title ''La philosophie dans le boudoir'', French film loosely adapted from de Sade's play "Philosophy in the Bedroom". Set in the present day, a cult of depraved hedonists cavort at a remote, elegant mansion.
* '' Justine de Sade'' (1972), directed by Claude Pierson. An accurate rendition of Sade's tale, though lacking Franco's panache.
* ''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
''Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom'' ( it, Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma, billed on-screen ''Pasolini's 120 Days of Sodom'' on English-language prints and commonly referred to as simply ''Salò'' []) is a 1975 horror film, horror art film dir ...
'' (1975) directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini, is perhaps the most well-known cinematic adaptation of de Sade. Pasolini transplants Sade's novel updated to Fascist Italy
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...
as a commentary on the excesses of power and the commodification of man.
* '' Cruel Passion'' (1977), a toned-down re-release of ''De Sade's Justine'', starring Koo Stark
Kathleen Norris Stark (born April 26, 1956), better known as Koo Stark, is an American photographer and actress, known for her relationship with Prince Andrew. She is a patron of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust, which runs the museum of the Vic ...
as the long-suffering heroine.
* '' House of De Sade'' (1977), X-rated film combines sex and S&M in a house haunted by de Sade's spirit. Vanessa del Rio
Vanessa del Rio (born March 31, 1952) is an American retired pornographic actress.
Early years
Vanessa del Rio was born Ana María Sánchez and raised in Harlem, New York, the only child of immigrants from Cuba and Puerto Rico. Her mother would ...
stars.
* '' Waxwork'' (1988), another horror film. In this one, people are drawn through the tableaux in a chamber of horrors into the lives of the evil men they represent. Two of the characters are transported to the world of the Marquis, where they are tormented by Sade (J. Kenneth Campbell
J. Kenneth Campbell (born July 22, 1947) is an American film, stage, and television actor who has been cast in over 80 roles. He was born in Flushing, Queens, Flushing, New York (state), New York. Campbell studied acting under theatrical fight dir ...
) and a visiting Prince, played by director Anthony Hickox.
* ''Marquis
A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...
'' (1989), a French/Belgian co-production that combines puppetry and animation to tell a whimsical tale of the Marquis (portrayed, literally, as a jackass, voiced by François Marthouret
François Marthouret (born 12 September 1943) is a French actor.
Selected filmography
Theater
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marthouret, Francois
1943 births
Living people
Male actors from Paris
French male film actors ...
) imprisoned in the pre-Revolution Bastille.
* ''Night Terrors'' (1994), another horror film playing on Sade's boogeyman image. A depiction of the Marquis's final days is intercut with the story of his modern day descendant, a serial killer. Tobe Hooper of ''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' is a 1974 American horror film produced and directed by Tobe Hooper from a story and screenplay by Hooper and Kim Henkel. It stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow and Gunnar Hansen, w ...
'' fame directed, while horror icon Robert Englund of '' A Nightmare on Elm Street'' (and its many sequels and spin-offs) played both the Marquis and his descendant.
* ''Marquis de Sade'', aka ''Dark Prince'' (1996). The Marquis (Nick Mancuso
Nicodemo Antonio Massimo Mancuso (born May 29, 1948) is an Italian-Canadian actor, artist, playwright, and director. Beginning his career as a stage actor, he had his breakthrough role in the 1981 drama ''Ticket to Heaven'', for which he won the ...
) seduces a young maiden from his jail cell. Loosely based on his life, and Sade's novel Justine.
* ''Sade
Sade may refer to:
People
* Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), French aristocrat, writer, and libertine
* Sade (singer) (born 1959, Helen Folasade Adu), British Nigerian musician and lead singer of the eponymous band
* Sade Baderinwa (born 1969), WAB ...
'' (2000), directed by Benoît Jacquot
Benoît Jacquot (; born 5 February 1947) is a French film director and screenwriter who has had a varied career in European cinema.
Life and career
Born in Paris, Jacquot began his career as assistant director of Marguerite Duras films, inclu ...
. Daniel Auteuil plays Sade, here imprisoned on a country estate with several other noble families, sexually educating a young girl in the shadow of the guillotine.
* '' Quills'' (2000), an adaptation of Doug Wright's play by director Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman (born October 23, 1936) is an American film director and screenwriter who has directed fifteen films over a career spanning more than six decades. He has been described as a "maverick" and an "iconoclast," notable for his versati ...
. A romanticized version of Sade's final days which raises questions of pornography and societal responsibility. Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. He is known for his Eccentricity (behavior), eccentric leading man roles on stage and screen. He is among 24 people who have won the Triple Crown of Acting, having received an Academy ...
plays Sade in a cast that also includes Kate Winslet
Kate Elizabeth Winslet (; born 5 October 1975) is an English actress. Known for her work in independent films, particularly period dramas, and for her portrayals of headstrong and complicated women, she has received numerous accolades, incl ...
, Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (; né Bottom; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for playing dark and unconventional characters in independent films. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academ ...
, and Michael Caine. The film portrays de Sade as a literary freedom fighter who is a martyr to the cause of free expression. The film's defense of de Sade is in essence a defense of cinematic freedom.[Raengo, Alessandra, and Stam, Robert, 2005, ''Literature and Film: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Film Adaptation'', Blackwell, .] The film was inspired by de Sade's imprisonment and battles with the censorship in his society.[ The film shows the strong influence of Hammer horror films, particularly in a key scene where asylum administrator Caine locks Winslet in a cell with a homicidal inmate, mirroring exactly a scene from '']The Curse of Frankenstein
''The Curse of Frankenstein'' is a 1957 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions, loosely based on the 1818 novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus '' by Mary Shelley. It was Hammer's first colour horror film, and the first of t ...
''.
* '' Lunacy'' (2005, Czech title ''Šílení''): Czech film directed by Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer (; born 4 September 1934) is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his stop-motion animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terr ...
. Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...
's short stories and inspired by the works of the Marquis de Sade. Sade figures as a character.
In art
Many surrealist artists had great interest in the Marquis de Sade. The first '' Manifesto of Surrealism'' (1924) announced that "Sade is surrealist in sadism". Guillaume Apollinaire found rare manuscripts by Sade in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. He published a selection of his writings in 1909, where he introduced Sade as "the freest spirit that had ever lived". Sade was celebrated in surrealist periodicals. In 1926 Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement.
In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
wrote of Sade as a "fantastique" and "revolutionary". Maurice Heine pieced together Sade's manuscripts from libraries and museums in Europe and published them between 1926 and 1935. Extracts of the original draft of '' Justine'' were published in ''Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution''.[Bate, David, 2004, ''Photography and Surrealism: Sexuality, Colonialism and Social Dissent'', I.B. Tauris, .]
The surrealist artist Man Ray
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...
admired Sade because he and other surrealists viewed him as an ideal of freedom.[ According to Ray, Heine brought the original 1785 manuscript of '']120 Days of Sodom
''The 120 Days of Sodom, or the School of Libertinage'' (french: Les 120 Journées de Sodome ou l'école du libertinage, links=no) is an unfinished novel by the French writer and nobleman Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade, written in ...
'' to his studio to be photographed. An image by Man Ray entitled ''Monument à D.A.F. de Sade'' appeared in ''Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution''.[
]
Other works
* The writer Georges Bataille
Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels, ...
applied Sade's methods of writing about sexual transgression to shock and provoke readers.[
* In ]Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. Robert Bloch, the author of '' Psycho'' ...
's science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
anthology, ''Dangerous Visions
''Dangerous Visions'' is a science fiction short story anthology edited by American writer Harlan Ellison and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon. It was published in 1967.
A path-breaking collection, ''Dangerous Visions'' helped define the New ...
'' (1967), Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch (; April 5, 1917September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small ...
wrote a story entitled "A Toy For Juliette" whose title character was both named for, and used techniques based on, Sade's works.
* A comedic defense of de Sade was given by Lord Buckley
Lord Richard Buckley (born Richard Myrle Buckley; April 5, 1906 – November 12, 1960) was an American stand-up comedian and recording artist, who in the 1940s and 1950s created a character that was, according to ''The New York Times'', "an unli ...
in his "Bad Rapping of the Marquis de Sade" in 1969.
* Bloch also wrote a short story called "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade", in which a collector becomes possessed by the violent spirit of the Marquis after stealing the titular item. The story was the basis for the film ''The Skull
''The Skull'' is a 1965 British horror film directed by Freddie Francis for Amicus Productions, and starring the frequently paired horror actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, alongside Patrick Wymark, Jill Bennett, Nigel Green, P ...
'' (1966), starring Peter Cushing and Patrick Wymark
Patrick Wymark (11 July 192620 October 1970) was an English stage, film and television actor.
Early life
Wymark was born Patrick Carl Cheeseman in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. He was brought up in neighbouring Grimsby and frequently revisited th ...
.
* Polish science fiction author Stanisław Lem has written an essay analyzing game-theoretical arguments that appear in Sade's novel '' Justine''.
* Sadeness (Part I)
"Sadeness (Part I)" is a song by German musical project Enigma, released in 1990 as the debut single from their first album, '' MCMXC a.D.'' (1990). It became an international hit, reaching number one in 14 countries. In the United States, the son ...
is a 1990 hit song by German musical project Enigma that is a sensual track, purportedly based around "questioning" the sexual desires of Marquis de Sade.
* In Justine Ettler
Justine Ettler (born 1965) is an Australian author who is best known for her 1995 novel, '' The River Ophelia'', which was shortlisted for the 1995 Aurealis Awards for Excellence in Australian Speculative Fiction - Horror Division - Best Novel. S ...
's ''The River Ophelia
''The River Ophelia'' is an Australian novel by Justine Ettler first published by Picador in 1995. The story moves between first-person narrative to an unnamed observer. It was highly controversial in Australia upon its publication, with some pr ...
'' (1995), the protagonist Justine is writing her thesis
A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...
on the work of Sade.
* Marquis de Sade appears as a non-player character in the 2014 video game '' Assassin's Creed Unity'', where he assists the main protagonist in his mission to eliminate several influential Revolutionary figures. He returns for the game's '' Dead Kings'' DLC.
* A song titled "De Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his literary depictions of a libertine human sexuality, sexuality as well as n ...
" appears on the metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
band Slipknot's 2022 album ''The End, So Far
''The End, So Far'' is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Slipknot. It was released on September 30, 2022, through Roadrunner Records. This is the band's final album to be released through Roadrunner, whom the band signed wit ...
''.
References
{{desade
Sade, Marquis de
Sade, Marquis de
Sade, Marquis de