The title concludes my thoughts regarding the film, Quills. It also represents my attitude towards this world.
The movie, Quills, was inspired by the stories of Marquis de Sade, who was an atheist, an extreme freedom philosopher and a very controversial erotic writer. The English word, sadism, is derived from his name.
The brief plot of the movie goes on like this:
Marquis was prisoned in a madmen asylum overseen by a liberal Abbe. To cure Marquis, the Abbe encouraged him to write. With helps from a chambermaid, Madeleine, Marquis's stories leaked out and got published. His erotic stories became popular among people and the infamous popularity soon called for misfortunes. Emperor Napolean banned Marquis's stories and dispatched Dr. Royer Collard to tighten the administration of the asylum. That is where the movie begins its own story. With each of Marquis's fightings to write, the policy was further tightened and more misfortunes happened. The movie ends with the death of Madeleine, Simone's turn into a prostitute from an innocent angel, the Abbe's self-destruction into madness and Marquis's final relief.
In the story, there are several contrast characters -- Dr. Royer Collard and Marquis; Madeleine and Dr's young, superficially virginal wife, Simone. The Abbe himself also contrasts to Marquis, who does not believe in God.
Dr. Collad and Marquis stand on the two ends of spectrum in moral, at least, on the surface. Marquis never pretends to be a Saint. He is not shamed of being a libertine and an atheist. He is whom he claims to be. Dr. Collad, on the contrary, is a beast with a human-being's form, an evil with moral's outfit. He is a cruel old man who has no pity with other people. It was he that cruelly locked the cell's door while he knew that Madeleine was in danger inside. Marquis , in another cell, bursted in tears for being unable to save her. Who is moral in front of God, if there is one?
Madeleine assisted Marquis to spread his stories. She helped other patients in the asylum. She secretly loves the Abbe. She likes marquis's erotic stories. She said that "I imagined to play a part in those dirty stories so I could be a good girl in this real world". And, she died as a virgin. Madeleine is like a virginal lotus out from a dirty pond.
Unlike Madeleine, Simone was raised up in a church and received good education. She did not know of any earthly thing before marrying to Dr. Collad. She reads Marquis's stories, and before long, she seduced other man and indulged in lust.
Both Madeleine and Simone read same stories and why did they behave so differently? Who should be blamed, the reader Simone or the author Marquis? Why does looking-good thing turn bad and looking-bad thing good? After all, Marquis said that he only 'records' what truly happened. Why are people so weak in oppose to the truth? Otherwise, how can we explain the Abbe's final madness? Perhaps that is why Marquis chose to be an atheist since he has seen the hell.
Indeed, it is so difficult to tell what is good and what is bad in this world.
