Academy Award winner Geoffrey Rush stars as the infamous Marquis de Sade who has shocked generation after generation with his highly charged erotic writings. Rush's powerful central performance is supported by an exceptional ensemble cast, including the seductive Kate Winslet, rising star Joaquin Phoenix, and Academy Award winner Michael Caine.

Highly acclaimed director Philip Kaufman offers his brilliant vision of this notorious writer who challenged the authority of both the church and state in 18th Century France.

Imprisoned from the world in an asylum, the prolific Marquis crafts his tales of perversion with the help of a chambermaid, the beautiful and innocent Madeleine. When their relationship is discovered it results in a disturbing and provocative confrontation between one man's freedom of expression and the state's need for control.