| Dangerous Liaisons | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Stephen Frears |
| Screenplay by | Christopher Hampton |
| Based on | Les Liaisons dangereuses 1782 epistolary novel byPierre Choderlos de Laclos andLes liaisons dangereuses 1985 play byChristopher Hampton |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Philippe Rousselot |
| Edited by | Mick Audsley |
| Music by | George Fenton |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
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Running time | 119 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $14 million |
| Box office | $34.7 million |
Dangerous Liaisons is a 1988 Americanperiodromantic drama film directed byStephen Frears, from a screenplay byChristopher Hampton based on his 1985 playLes Liaisons Dangereuses, itself adapted fromthe 1782 French novel byPierre Choderlos de Laclos.[1] The film depicts schemes of seduction and revenge among aristocrats in 18th century France, and starsGlenn Close,John Malkovich,Michelle Pfeiffer,Uma Thurman,Swoosie Kurtz,Mildred Natwick,Peter Capaldi andKeanu Reeves.
Dangerous Liaisons was theatrically released byWarner Bros. Pictures on December 21, 1988. Grossing $34.7 million against its $14 million budget, the film was a modest box-office success. It was nominated for seven awards at the61st Academy Awards, includingBest Picture, winning three:Best Adapted Screenplay,Best Costume Design, andBest Production Design.[2]
Inpre-Revolution Paris, the Marquise de Merteuil plots revenge against her ex-lover, the Comte de Bastide, who recently ended their relationship. To soothe her wounded pride and embarrass Bastide, she seeks to arrange the seduction and disgrace of his young virgin fiancée, Cécile de Volanges, who has only recently beenpresented to society after spending her formative years in the shelter of aconvent.
Merteuil calls on the similarly unprincipled Vicomte de Valmont, another ex-lover of hers, to do the deed. Valmont declines as he is plotting to seduce Madame de Tourvel, the devoutly religious wife of a member of Parliament and a current guest of Valmont's aunt, Madame de Rosemonde. Amused and incredulous at Valmont's hubris, Merteuil ups the ante: if Valmont somehow succeeds in seducing Tourvel and can furnish written proof, Merteuil will sleep with him as well. Never one to refuse a challenge, Valmont accepts.
Tourvel rebuffs all of Valmont's advances. Searching for leverage, he instructs his page Azolan to seduce Tourvel's maid, Julie, and gain access to Tourvel's private correspondence. One of the letters intercepted is from Cécile's mother and Merteuil's cousin, Madame de Volanges, warning Tourvel that Valmont is nefarious and untrustworthy. Valmont resolves to seduce Cécile as revenge for her mother's accurate denunciation of him.
At the opera, Cécile meets the charming and handsome Chevalier Danceny, who becomes her music teacher. They fall in love with coaxing from Merteuil, who knows that Danceny, as a nobleman of lesser rank, naive, young, and not particularly wealthy, can never qualify as a bona fide suitor.
Valmont gains access to Cécile's bedchamber on a pretext and sexually assaults her. As she pleads with him to leave, he blackmails her into giving up physical resistance, and the scene ends. On the pretext of illness, Cécile remains locked in her chambers, refusing all visitors. A concerned Madame de Volanges asks Merteuil to speak to Cécile; Cécile confides in Merteuil, naively assuming that she has Cécile's best interests at heart. Merteuil advises Cécile to welcome Valmont's advances; she says young women should take advantage of all the lovers they can acquire in a society so repressive and contemptuous of women. The result is a "student-teacher" relationship; by day, Cécile is courted by Danceny, and each night, she receives a sexual "lesson" from Valmont. Merteuil begins an affair with Danceny.
After a night in Valmont's bed, Cécile miscarries her child. Meanwhile, Valmont has won Tourvel's heart, but at a cost: the lifelong bachelor playboy falls in love. In a fit of jealousy, Merteuil mocks Valmont and refuses to honor her end of their agreement unless Valmont breaks up with Tourvel. Valmont abruptly dismisses Tourvel with a terse excuse, suggested by Merteuil: "It's beyond my control." Overwhelmed with grief and shame, Tourvel retreats to a monastery where her health deteriorates rapidly.
Despite the breakup, Merteuil still refuses to honor the agreement and, provoked to do so by Valmont, declares "war". She informs Danceny that Valmont has been sleeping with Cécile. Danceny challenges Valmont to a duel, ending with the latter voluntarily running into Danceny's sword. With his dying breath, Valmont asks Danceny to communicate to Tourvel his true feelings for her; he also warns Danceny about Meurteuil and gives him his collection of intimate letters from her as proof of the veracity of his warnings. Valmont tells Danceny to circulate them after he has read them.
After hearing Valmont's message from Danceny, Tourvel dies. Meanwhile, following Valmont's death, Merteuil sinks into madness and pain. Later, she attends a show at the opera but leaves after being booed by her former friends and sycophants, implying that all of Paris has learned the full range of her schemes and depredations due to Danceny's circulation of the letters.
Dangerous Liaisons was the first English-language film adaptation of Laclos's novel. The screenplay was based onChristopher Hampton'sOlivier Award-winning andTony Award-nominatedtheatrical adaptation for theRoyal Shakespeare Company,[3] directed byHoward Davies and featuringLindsay Duncan,Alan Rickman andJuliet Stevenson.
The film was shot entirely on location in theÎle-de-France region of northern France, and featured historical buildings such as theChâteau de Vincennes inVal-de-Marne, theChâteau de Champs-sur-Marne, theChâteau de Guermantes inSeine-et-Marne, theChâteau du Saussay inEssonne, and theThéâtre Montansier inVersailles.[4][5]
Liaisons was the final film appearance ofAcademy Award andTony Award-nominated actressMildred Natwick.[6]Drew Barrymore andSarah Jessica Parker were considered for the role of Cécile before it went to Thurman.[7]Annette Bening went through several auditions for the role of the courtesan Émilie, but in the end the role went toLaura Benson.[8] Bening would go on to play the role of the Marquise de Merteuil inMiloš Forman's adaptation ofLes Liaisons Dangereuses,Valmont, a year later.
During production, Malkovich had an affair with Pfeiffer. His six-year marriage to actressGlenne Headly ended shortly thereafter.[9][10][11]
Thurman later stated that she agreed to perform a nude scene in the film because she believed it was the right artistic decision at the time, despite feeling nervous. She expressed dissatisfaction with the "voyeuristic" nature of the final cut of the scene and decided not to appear nude in future films.[12]
Thescore ofDangerous Liaisons was written by the British film music composerGeorge Fenton. The soundtrack also includes works by a number ofbaroque andclassical composers, reflecting the story's18th-Century-French setting; pieces byAntonio Vivaldi,Johann Sebastian Bach,George Frideric Handel andChristoph Willibald Gluck feature prominently, although no French composers are included.[13]
| Track | Song title | Composer |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dangerous Liaisons Main Title/"Dressing" | George Fenton |
| 2 | "Madame De Tourvel" | George Fenton |
| 3 | "The Challenge" | George Fenton |
| 4 | "O malheureuse Iphigénie!", fromIphigénie en Tauride | Christoph Willibald Gluck |
| 5 | "Going Hunting" – "Allegro" fromOrgan Concerto No. 13, "The Cuckoo and the Nightingale" | George Frideric Handel, arr. George Fenton |
| 6 | "Valmont's First Move"/"The Staircase" | George Fenton |
| 7 | "Beneath The Surface" | George Fenton |
| 8 | "The Set Up" | George Fenton |
| 9 | "The Key" | George Fenton |
| 10 | "Her Eyes Are Closing" | George Fenton |
| 11 | "Ombra mai fu", fromSerse | George Frideric Handel |
| 12 | "Tourvel's Flight" | George Fenton |
| 13 | "Success" | George Fenton |
| 14 | "Emilie" | George Fenton |
| 15 | "Beyond My Control" | George Fenton |
| 16 | "A Final Request" | George Fenton |
| 17 | "Ombra mai fu" reprise/"The Mirror" | George Frideric Handel/George Fenton |
| 18 | Dangerous Liaisons End Credits | George Fenton |
| 19 | "Allegro" fromConcerto in A minor for four harpsichords,BWV 1065 | Johann Sebastian Bach |
Dangerous Liaisons holds a score of 94% onRotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Stylish, seductive, and clever, Stephen Frears' adaptation is a wickedly entertaining exploration of sexual politics."[14] OnMetacritic it has a score of 74 based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[15] Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.[16]
Pauline Kael inThe New Yorker described it as "heaven – alive in a way that movies rarely are."[15]Hal Hinson inThe Washington Post wrote that the film's "wit and immediacy is extraordinarily rare in a period film. Instead of making the action seem far off, the filmmakers put the audience in the room with their characters."[17]Roger Ebert called it "an absorbing and seductive movie, but not compelling."[18]Variety considered it an "incisive study of sex as an arena for manipulative power games."[19]Vincent Canby inThe New York Times hailed it as a "kind of lethal drawing-room comedy."[20]
TheTime Out reviewer wrote ofChristopher Hampton's screenplay that "one of the film's enormous strengths is scriptwriter Christopher Hampton's decision to go back to the novel, and save only the best from his play".[21]James Acheson andStuart Craig were also praised for their work, with Sheila Benson of theLos Angeles Times stating that "the film's details of costuming (byThe Last Emperor's James Acheson) and production design (by Stuart Craig ofGandhi andThe Mission) are ravishing".[22] All three would go on to winAcademy Awards for their work on this film.
Glenn Close received considerable praise for her performance; she was lauded byThe New York Times for her "richness and comic delicacy,"[20] whileMick LaSalle of theSan Francisco Chronicle wrote that, once she "finally lets loose and gives way to complete animal despair, Close is horrifying."[15] Roger Ebert thought the two lead roles were "played to perfection by Close and Malkovich... their arch dialogues together turn into exhausting conversational games, tennis matches of the soul."[18]
Michelle Pfeiffer was widely acclaimed for her portrayal, despite playing, in the opinion ofThe Washington Post, "the least obvious and the most difficult" role. "Nothing is harder to play than virtue, and Pfeiffer is smart enough not to try. Instead, she embodies it."[17] TheNew York Times called her performance a "happy surprise."[20] Roger Ebert, considering the trajectory of her career, wrote that "in a year that has seen her in varied assignments such asMarried to the Mob andTequila Sunrise, the movie is more evidence of her versatility. She is good when she is innocent and superb when she is guilty."[18] Pfeiffer would go on to win theBAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance.
The casting ofJohn Malkovich proved to be a controversial decision that divided critics.The New York Times, while admitting there was the "shock of seeing him in powdered wigs", concluded that he was "unexpectedly fine. The intelligence and strength of the actor shape the audience's response to him".[20]The Washington Post was similarly impressed with Malkovich's performance: "There's a sublime perversity in Frears' casting, especially that of Malkovich... [he] brings a fascinating dimension to his character that would be missing with a more conventionally handsome leading man."[17]Variety was less impressed, stating that while the "sly actor conveys the character's snaky, premeditated Don Juanism... he lacks the devilish charm and seductiveness one senses Valmont would need to carry off all his conquests".[19]
Uma Thurman gained recognition from critics and audiences;[23][24] film critic Roger Ebert found her to be "well cast" in her "tricky" key role.[18]
Almost 25 years after he played Valmont,John Malkovich directed a French-language version of Hampton's play in Paris, which ran at theThéâtre de l'Atelier.[34][35] In December 2012, the production was brought toLansburgh Theatre by theShakespeare Theatre Company for a limited run in Washington, D.C.[36]
In 1989, the filmValmont was released starringColin Firth,Annette Bening andMeg Tilly.
In 1999, the filmCruel Intentions set the same story in present-day America, starringSarah Michelle Gellar,Ryan Phillippe andReese Witherspoon.
In 2012, aChinese version was released, starringJang Dong-gun,Zhang Ziyi andCecilia Cheung. It is loosely based on the novel itself and is set in 1930sShanghai.
In 2018, the TV seriesThe Great Seducer was released as a modern-day adaptation set in Korea starringJoy (singer),Moon Ga-young,Kim Min-jae (actor, born 1996) andWoo Do-hwan.
Dawn French andJennifer Saunders parodiedDangerous Liaisons on their sketch showFrench & Saunders, which then inspired their 1999 comedy seriesLet Them Eat Cake.
In 2022, the seriesDangerous Liaisons premiered on premium television providerStarz. According to writer Harriet Warner, the series is loosely inspired by the novel and explores the marquise's life before the events of the play.[37]
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