Quills

Quills (2000) is a historical drama directed by Philip Kaufman that you can watch online on iFILM. Geoffrey Rush plays the Marquis de Sade, locked inside the Charenton asylum in early nineteenth-century France while Napoleon's government scrambles to stop his manuscripts from reaching the public.

The Abbé Coulmier — Joaquin Phoenix — runs the institution with genuine compassion, until the Marquis pushes too far. Kate Winslet plays Madeleine, a laundress who smuggles the writings out. Michael Caine arrives as Dr. Royer-Collard, a government enforcer sent to silence the prisoner by any means available. Each restriction imposed on the Marquis — no pen, no ink, no paper — only sharpens his determination to keep writing.

The film is based on Doug Wright's stage play, which he adapted himself for the screen. Rush received an Academy Award nomination for the role. The cast of four — Rush, Winslet, Phoenix, Caine — gives the film a weight that turns a story about censorship into something stranger and funnier than expected. Stream Quills (2000) on iFILM.