The Marquis de Sade - Pornographer or Prophet?

This provocative and emotionally unsettling video examines the realities behind the myth of the Marquis de Sade (1740-1814), the French author who, charged with numerous sexual offenses, spent half of his adult life in prisons or asylums. His obscene romances, such as Justine and The 120 Days of Sodom, written clandestinely during the French Revolution, argue that sexually deviant and criminal acts are natural since they exist in nature. Today his writings are felt to have foreshadowed much modern psychological thought and to reflect aspects of our own troubled society. But was he a prophet, or merely a pornographer? A misogynist or a founding father of feminism? Does he deserve his reputation as a major literary figure and revolutionary thinker? Featuring excerpts from several film adaptations of Sade’s work, plus interviews with scholars, critics, biographers and historians, including David Coward, Andrea Dworkin, Camille Paglia, Francine du Plessix Gray, Richard Seaver, and Neil Shaeffer, this video reveals the various and often conflicting interpretations of Sade and his writings.