Restricted to children under 16, this very strange film is worth seeing at least once in a lifetime.

Actor, screenwriter, art director, illustrator, artist, director… Roland Topor was a true jack of all trades. For the most informed moviegoers, he was, among other things, the screenwriter of the science fiction animated film that went down in history, an absolute classic: La Planète sauvage, by René Laloux, released in 1973. He is also Roland Topor. who wrote A chimerical tenantA Kafkaesque novel published in 1964, which would become the basis of Roman Polanski’s nightmare film.

The old-timers among you may also remember Téléchat, the legendary Belgian-French co-production television series broadcast between 1983 and 1985 that Topor created with Henri Xone. daily tablets 5 minutes, he was introduced to Groucha the cat and his eternal arm in a sling and Lola the ostrich. Beneath the benevolent exterior, though very strange and sometimes even bordering on the nightmarish, telechat It was also a form of criticism of society.

In 1989, Roland Topor found his Belgian accomplice Henri Xoneux for a pure alien, unidentified film object. A sulphurous, completely insane, unclassifiable piece of work, even if, at times, let’s say uncomfortable: Marquis.

Story ? The action takes place in 1789. The Marquis de Sade secretly writes in a cell in the Bastille and argues with his sex, which demands satisfaction. A young woman pregnant with the king’s bastard child is imprisoned not far from him. In order to avoid the scandal that this birth will cause, a corrupt priest decides to make people believe that the Marquis is the father of the child…

What does it look like? Below that…

Mixing live-action cinematography, animatronics and even Clay Motion (animation modeling clay), Marquis Featuring half-man, half-animal characters serving up a strange and nightmarish fantasy world.

The Marquis de Sade, the dog-man, speaks of the condition and folly of the human soul when he does not directly argue with his sex, which has a will of its own. Between a one-legged pig, a bisexual rat, the governor of the Rooster of the Bastille, or even a church camel (yes, yes!), the spectacle offered by the film is like no other, peppered with intentionally raunchy dialogue and raunchy scenes. to justify banning the film for children under 16.

“You see people crazy enough to put money into it” Roland Topor said in an interview with Thierry Ardison in 1989; “It’s easier than you, the journalists, who say to themselves, ‘How can I talk about the film because it’s not my audience!’before bursting into laughter.

Marquis It is a movie that you should see at least once in your life. It was released on DVD 20 years ago in 2004. Suffice it to say, it’s a real rarity today.