Marquis – Mondo Macabro (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Belgium/Chile/France, 1989
Director: Henri Xhonneux
Writers: Roland Topor, Henri Xhonneux
Cast: François Marthouret, Valérie Kling, Michel Robin, Isabelle Wolfe, Vicky Messica, Nathalie Juvet, René Lebrun, Bob Morel, Roger Crouzet, Willem Holtrop, Eric De Sarria, Henri Rubinstein

Release Date: October 13th, 2026
Approximate Running Time: 83 Minutes 22 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono French
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.95

"Imprisoned in the Bastille for a minor act of blasphemy, the Marquis navigates lust, censorship, and the chaos of pre-revolutionary France. Through his wild imagination, he escapes into scandalous tales he writes down on scraps of paper. But the idea of a real escape begins to take shape when his cellmates start planning their breakout to join the revolutionary movement beyond the Bastille walls." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "New 2K restoration from the original negative."

Marquis comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 37.7 GB

Feature: 24.3 GB

The source looks excellent; flesh tones look healthy, colors are nicely saturated, contrast, black levels, image clarity, and compression are solid, and the image retains an organic appearance.

Audio: 5/5

This release comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in French with removable English subtitles. The track sounds excellent; dialogue comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and ambient sounds are well-represented.

Extras:

Extras for this release include reversible cover art, an image gallery with music from the film playing in the background (drawings/behind-the-scenes stills), a theatrical trailer (44 seconds, Dolby Digital mono French with removable English subtitles), animation storyboards, a text-based extra about a TV series titled Téléchat that influenced Marquis, a making-of featurette titled Faces Beneath the Masks (33 minutes 4 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo French with removable English subtitles), a making-of featurette titled The Creation of Marquis (15 minutes 38 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo French with removable English subtitles), and an audio commentary with producers Eric van Beuren and Claudie Ossard and actor Philippe Bizot.

Summary:

The Marquis de Sade and his writings have served as the basis of numerous films. While Marquis retains the essence of Marquis de Sade’s writings, it is not an adaptation of them; it is a new creation. The film is set during the French Revolution; an imprisoned Marquis de Sade and other political prisoners are being held in a Bastille. The guards and the police chief, who hold power, are the true deviants, despite the declaration of Marquis' libertine lifestyle as obscene.

Marquis is a live-action film that employs animatronics and an occasional moment of clay animation. All of the characters have a human form with animal heads, and the Marquis character has a talking penis that he confides in. While the central figure is Marquis, the narrative does a commendable job balancing between him and its cast of colorful characters.

For a film inspired by the Marquis de Sade, it's not surprising that some of the sexual content pushes boundaries. The most memorable moment is a scene where Marquis sodomizes a man who lusts after him with a lobster. When it comes to its subversive humor, Marquis never misses its mark. Ultimately, Marquis puts on a unique take on Marquis de Sade while retaining his essence.

Marquis gets an exceptional release from Mondo Macabro that comes with a solid audio/video presentation and informative extras. Highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer