Had the Marquis been of the "modern" era, he'd be a wealthy, famous and notorius fellow. Just as Hugh Hefner and Pamela (is Anderson or Lee these days?) are now.
As depicted in the movie, he is afflicted with a compulsion to write. Yes, he writes rather baudy and bloody tomes, but the real drive is simply to put pen (quill) to paper and purge his ever burgeoning collection of base and carnal thoughts that also seem to contain seeds of social satire and outrage.
His trauma is at once understandable and incomprehensible. His circumstance is one of comfort and taudry drama that fits him as well as his once grand torn ruffled shirts and tattered silk suits.
The cast is able and apt, the settings filthy (more dirt, not as much smut as one might expect) and grubby, the script is Greek in its tragic escalations. In other words, this is a very entertaining film, so long as you aren't overwhelmed with the lack of gratuitous representations of sex. This omission is important, as the real points of the film are about the essential importance of creativity, free expression, and the astounding transportive power of the written word to those in need of escape.
I recently read a passage in a cookbook that told of women in Nazi concentration camps who passed the time and maintained hope by collecting recipes. This set of papers was passed from one person to another, over more that 40 years, until it was delivered to the daughter of that woman. The covenant kept, the promise honored is astounding, but even so, this daughter, this survivor, couldn't bring herself to read the writings of her own mother for four years.
It's not that recipes and smut are even slightly equitable in most circumstances that I find moving, but that the essence of a person can be encapsulated in their writing. Defiance of surroundings, to live beyond the control of those that would suppress you. Communication of an idea, the most astoundingly powerful and beautiful thing a person can do. Suppression of that spirit of sharing, therefore has got to be one of the most heinous crimes a person can commit.
The films most moving and affecting images are of the squallor of the times, the harsh existence of the underclasses and emotionally unbalanced denizens of the film. Don't be fooled, this film has humor, romance and grand moments as well. I particularly enjoyed the play within the play Hamlet bit (if you didn't know, this was a play first, adapted for the screen).
A thoroughly entertaining experience, even if I didn't get to spend minutes looking into Joaquim Phoenix's gorgeous green eyes. Too bad, its my site, I think he's cute. Get your own site and have a ball!