After visualising erotic literature on screen in 'Henry And June' and 'The Unbearable Lightness Of Being', director Kaufman turns his attention to the works of the Marquis De Sade, the erotc writer form which the term 'Sadism' justifyably takes its name.
Doug Wright adapts his own stage play, taking a fictional spin on the infamous writer and sexual deviant's final days in Charenton Asylum. The ever manipulaitive Marquis befriends a young laundress and pursuades her to smuggle his final wrtings out of the asylum for publication. Not happy with this act of defiance, he also stirs up the other inmates to the point of inevitable destruction.
An intelligent study of voyeurism, eroticism, rebellion and censorship, the film is driven by a dark, stinging wit and passionate performances.