How do you define making an impact on the world? How about being so infamous, having such an impact on the state of mind of a nation, that you have a word names after you? And all for putting on paper what many, many people think about, but never dare admit. Sadism. Named after the Marquis de Sade. Written about with… quills. Do you see?

Years later, and de Sade is now resident in the Charenton mental asylum, but continues his depraved writings from his luxuriously furbished cell. His latest work, Justine, is being smuggled out, chapter by chapter with the assistance of laundry worker Madeleine (Kate Winslet from out of Titanic). She is taking the manuscripts to a courier, who in turn gets the work to a publisher, and de Sade’s Justine sells through the streets of Paris like erotic cakes.

The current administrator is Abbot Coulmier (Joaquin Phoenix from U-Turn & Gladiator), who is easier than a Sunday morning on Easy Street after someone has proclaimed it National Day of Easy Going. He is a friend of de Sade (or so it would seem), enjoying wine with him, and easier to push over than a cardboard standee of Kate Moss. This is why the Marquis has a cell resembling, well, something very un-cell like – he has a real bed, books, art, and is allowed to keep writing as Coulmier believes it will purge his mind of evil.

Come (oo-er) to think of it, for something based around the original spankster, there is very little sexual activity. The first half hour is packed with more innuendo than a barrel full of Kenneth Williamses (is that a word?), but later descends into more torrid territory, with some of the inmates unable to control their desires. This is where the movie really kicks into gear – this could have easily been a debauched no brainer, but instead sets some solid arguments in place. Are the weak-minded easily swayed by such powerful writings? Can art spark off the deep recesses of one’s imagination against one’s will? Maybe not so much today, but in the days of de Sade, it would seem that no one was beyond corruption. We all have our perversions – it is whether we carry them out or not that makes us monsters.

Caine is unstoppable as the twisted and quite pathetic Royer-Collard. Determined to bring order to the chaos of the asylum, he is also a proud man – too proud to admit his failings, and to admit that he is not the best man for the job. Greedy and arrogant, the former Alfie actor has had a shot in the arm of late, and is a great villain.