“Help me, my dear friend!”

'Marat / Sade' (1967) is the result of the conjunction of two geniuses of playwriting, Peter Brook, here in functions of a film director, and Peter Weiss, propellant of such sadistic argument. A bathroom in Charenton’s sanatorium hosts the representation of a hypothetical theoretical confrontation between one of the great instigators of the French Revolution, Jean-Paul Marat, and a literary figure as the Marquis de Sade.

The episode portrayed stems from a series of plays that took a great success within the French bourgeoisie in the 19th century, whose appeal was based in a staging leaded by mentally ill people. Sade was responsible for memorable adaptations of his writings in Charenton, and Weiss inserted in that context the dialectical conflict between reason and heart with the aim of knowing the keys of the popular revolt of 1789.

Marat stands in one of the most controversial figures in the revolutionary itinerary admired by the less wealthy classes, and it becomes a martyr to the cause after being murdered by Charlotte Corday in 1793. The political activist spends his last days locked in her house as a result of a skin disease that requires him to take baths repeatedly. Corday, attached to the group of girondists –it´s considered the most radical of belonging to the National Assembly-, visited up three times to the cordelier Marat until she has been received: this meeting will result in tragedy and historic milestone.

In Brook’s film, Marat and Sade exhibit conflicting vital philosophies. While 'The friend of the people' defends a society that does not understand inequalities, drawn from Machiavellian precepts, the writer argues for the individualistic dictates of the soul to achieve a better world. These are the transcendental impulses of two idealistic men guided by a disrupted perception of reality.