University of Virginia Library

Marat/Sade:
'A Mess'

"T 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."
Produced and directed by Peter Brooks,
from the stage play by Peter Welss, and
adopted for the screen by Peter Broohs. All
acting is performed by the Royal Shakespearean
Company; released through United
Artists. Yesterday was the last day to see
the return engagement of this 1968 film at
the University.

By Jay Steer

"Marat/Sade" is a mess.

I did not see the play, nor have I read
anything about it. I went in with a clean
slate, and vomited on my popcorn.

I was insulted three times: first by the
incomprehensible twenty-six word title,
then by the obscenity of the inmates, and
finally by the cut at student revolutionaries
at the end.

"Enlightened' Play

This movie, the screen version of the
celebrated Broadway play, concerns a skit
put on (for therapeutic purposes) by
inmates in an "enlightened" insane asylum
to act out the murder of Jean-Paul Marat, a
leader in the French Revolution. To add the
necessary amount of spice, the Marquis De
Sade directs the show.

And spice there is. Director Peter Brooks
makes sure he cuts to the freaks on the
sidelines doing their stunts about once every
eleven seconds. There is no avoiding looking
at the guards with their blood-stained
aprons, brandishing their blackjacks.

The Royal Shakespearean Company was
given the task of showing us how the loonies
act in their bins. And I saw them do their
tricks. The company did an excellent job of
handling this hard material: they articulated
well, they acted well, and they made good
lunatics.

The substance of the play is relatively
easy to follow, if you don't stare at the guy
in the background dribbling all over the
place.

The Narrator

The narrator of the play introduces us to
every member of the cast, tells us what will
happen to each of them, and predicts the
outcome of the play-within-the-play in the
first five minutes. So there is no suspense as
to what will happen to Jean-Paul: he will be
murdered on the third try by a young girl,
disillusioned with the revolution.

But this really isn't the point. As the
presence of De Sade may have suggested,
the whole show is obscene. We look at this
zoo through bars of steel and pity. But
author Peter Weiss has worked the themes
of the play well, and at the end, who are the
insane?

When I came to think of it, this movie
had a lot to say about the world. If only Mr.
Brooks hadn't tried to work this thing out
by out-doing De Sade. I could only take so
much of the spectacle.

Why

Why? What was the purpose of it? Better
yet, why did the movie come back to
Charlottesville to insult us again?

I think the most important message of
the movie had something to do with the
mind of the revolutionary. This is especially
relevant in light of the radical students over
the country advocating revolution.

Director Brooks wants to show us that
the loonies in the asylum are as crazy as the
revolutionaries. Why, the radicals murder
even more maliciously than any torture De
Sade could think up.

The picture of the destruction of the
French Revolution is desperate. We see
people purifying the movement with uncalled-for
fanaticism. All the characters in
both the play and the real thing are seen as
men with problems, each struggling to do
what he can for himself, yet visibly
professing the revolution as his Messiah.

The end of the play, when everybody in
the insane asylum starts screaming and
attacking the guards, the nuns and all the
authorities, is the most biting comment of
the whole movie. Maybe the student leaders
at the University are not quite as guilty of
this as others, but I know some other
should see Marat's eulogy before they burr
down their own administration buildings.