Dangerous Liaisons ***** (1988, Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Uma Thurman, Michelle Pfeiffer, Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, Keanu Reeves, Peter Capaldi) – Classic Movie Review 307

Director Stephen Frears’s dazzling 1988 movie of Christopher Hampton’s award-winning London and Broadway hit stage play Les Liaisons Dangereuses is scaldingly exciting. You can just feel the sexual heat radiating from it. Based on the classic French novel by Choderlos de Laclos, it’s a gloriously tragic romantic tale of sexual conquest and scorned love.

The yarn, set in France around 1760, focuses on the wicked wiles of a scheming French woman, the Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil. She enlists the help of her former lover, Vicomte Sebastien de Valmont, to deflower an innocent young girl, Cecile de Volanges, who’s to be merely a pathetic pawn in this nasty game. Another one of the Marquise’s ex-lovers, Gercourt, is betrothed to the virtuous Cecile, so  the Marquise wants Valmont to seduce Cecile before her wedding day, thus humiliating Gercourt.

Meanwhile, Valmont obsesses dangerously over the idea of seducing a beautiful, virtuous, God-fearing, married older woman, Madame de Tourvel… Trouble’s brewing.

These four main roles get exactly he actors they need in Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Uma Thurman and Michelle Pfeiffer, all of them on superb, sizzling form. Close and Malkovich, particularly, form a marvellous double act, evil and perverted lust oozing out of their every pore.  Close is especially eye-catching, playing it scarily tough before caving in and finally touching the heart as she reveals her true feelings.

Swoosie Kurtz is also good as Cecile’s mother, Madame de Volanges,  veteran actress Mildred Natwick scores as old Madame de Rosemond, while poor Keanu Reeves is way out of his depth as the handsome, young Chevalier Raphael Danceny (though he does look very handsome and young). Peter Capaldi plays the servant Azolan.

The Marquise doesn’t think that Valmont will succeed and says if he can provide written proof of a sexual encounter with Madame de Tourvel, she will offer him a reward of one last night with her. But Valmont falls in love with Mme de Tourvel, making the Marquise insanely jealous.

Though Close and Pfeiffer were Oscar nominated for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, all the actors were disgracefully overlooked at Academy Awards time. The movie did win three Oscars, though, one for Hampton’s Best Adapted Screenplay, another for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (Stuart Craig, Gerard James) and a third for Best Costume Design (James Acheson). Pfeiffer did win a Bafta award and so did Hampton.

The movie turns the darkly romantic material into a brilliantly polished, fast-paced, clever period thriller, thanks to Hampton going back to the original novel to write his screenplay that has no hint of the theatre or the pages of a book. It’s fluently cinematic and even more lethal than either. The film looks absolutely glorious too, thanks to Philippe Rousselot’s marvellous cinematography, Stuart Craig’s Art Direction, Gerard James’s Set Decoration and James Acheson’s Costumes.

It was, oddly, filmed at the same time Milos Forman’s adaptation of the same novel, the film Valmont (with Colin Firth, Annette Bening and Meg Tilly), which was released later in 1989 and flopped.

Both movies have a great deal to recommend them but this was the one everyone admired and enjoyed.

It was successfully reworked in 1999 for a younger generation as Cruel Intentions.

http://derekwinnert.com/cruel-intentions-classic-film-review-301/

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Film Review 307 derekwinnert.com