"Les Liaisons Dangereuses" (Dangerous Liaisons) has been one of my favorite books ever since I read it in a college French class a few years before the movie came out. It is a novel of dark wit and keen insight into human behavior and psychology. I was really looking forward to seeing the film. Well, to me, it was a major disappointment.
For one thing, I don't think this movie was well-cast. I like John Malkovich (I think he was excellent in "In the Line of Fire," "Places in the Heart," and even in a small part in "Jennifer Eight"), but he was the wrong person to play Valmont. Yes, he does a good job of conveying the character's perfidy and viciousness, but in my view, he was so lacking in charm that he just wasn't very credible as a master seducer; not did he come across as smooth and aristocratic, the way he should. It didn't help that at some points, the film had him acting more like a frat boy than an aristocrat -- like flick his tongue at one of his conquests, or sprint up the stairs yelling "Success!" after "scoring" with another.
Glenn Close was better as Madame de Merteuil, but while she captured the duplicity of the Marquise -- the surface sweetness concealing an essential ruthlessness -- she didn't exude sexual magnetism, either. The only good choices were Michelle Pfeiffer, lovely and touching as the beguiled Madame de Tourvel, and Swoosie Kurtz in the minor part of Madame de Volanges. Uma Thurman was mostly forgettable as Cecile, and the less said of Keanu Reeves as Danceny, the better.
****SPOILERS COMING****
The screenplay was mostly quite good, and the writers did a very successful job of adapting a novel that consisted of exchanges of letters. I certainly don't fault them for not being 100% faithful to the novel -- that often doesn't work on the screen. However, some of the departures from the book didn't work well at all and didn't make much sense. I cannot for the life of me understand why Cecile's young suitor Danceny was turned into a music teacher. (In the novel, he sings duets with Cecile, but doesn't teach her.) Danceny is an aristocrat and a social equal of the other characters; an 18th Century French aristocrat would never have been employed as a music teacher, or as anything else for that matter! (Had he been a commoner, he never could have challenged Valmont to a duel.)
Another problem: in the novel, when Valmont breaks up with Madame de Tourvel at the Marquise's instigation, he does so by sending her a casually cruel letter -- copying it word for word from the Marquise's letter. I know it wouldn't have been very dramatic. However, in the film, when he announces the breakup to de Tourvel in a face-to-face confrontation, it takes away some of that casual cruelty... especially since he shows far too much emotion. Madame de Tourvel would have figured out that something was going on and he didn't really want to dump her.
Finally, the ending was artificially sweetened. A dying Valmont asks Danceny to tell Madame de T. that he loved her and that the only true happiness he had ever experienced was with her; Danceny goes over to see the ailing Madame de T. and gives her Valmont's message before she dies. The ending of the novel is far more ambiguous. While Valmont does profess love for Madame de Tourvel and regret for what he has done to her, whether he is sincere or faking it in order to win her over one more time and feed his own ego is left deliberately unresolved. And while he does write her a letter of apology, she is delirious when she received it. There is no consolation for her before she dies.
"Les Liaisons Dangereuses" is still awaiting a worthy screen adaptation. (The 1989 film "Valmont" by Milos Forman wasn't all that good and strayed way too far from the plot of the novel.) Personally, I'm inclined to think that the only way justice can be done to the book is in a miniseries of 6 hours or so, like the one they recently did of "Pride and Prejudice." It's the only way to capture the novel's psychological subtleties and the subplots that are quite crucial to character development.
For one thing, I don't think this movie was well-cast. I like John Malkovich (I think he was excellent in "In the Line of Fire," "Places in the Heart," and even in a small part in "Jennifer Eight"), but he was the wrong person to play Valmont. Yes, he does a good job of conveying the character's perfidy and viciousness, but in my view, he was so lacking in charm that he just wasn't very credible as a master seducer; not did he come across as smooth and aristocratic, the way he should. It didn't help that at some points, the film had him acting more like a frat boy than an aristocrat -- like flick his tongue at one of his conquests, or sprint up the stairs yelling "Success!" after "scoring" with another.
Glenn Close was better as Madame de Merteuil, but while she captured the duplicity of the Marquise -- the surface sweetness concealing an essential ruthlessness -- she didn't exude sexual magnetism, either. The only good choices were Michelle Pfeiffer, lovely and touching as the beguiled Madame de Tourvel, and Swoosie Kurtz in the minor part of Madame de Volanges. Uma Thurman was mostly forgettable as Cecile, and the less said of Keanu Reeves as Danceny, the better.
****SPOILERS COMING****
The screenplay was mostly quite good, and the writers did a very successful job of adapting a novel that consisted of exchanges of letters. I certainly don't fault them for not being 100% faithful to the novel -- that often doesn't work on the screen. However, some of the departures from the book didn't work well at all and didn't make much sense. I cannot for the life of me understand why Cecile's young suitor Danceny was turned into a music teacher. (In the novel, he sings duets with Cecile, but doesn't teach her.) Danceny is an aristocrat and a social equal of the other characters; an 18th Century French aristocrat would never have been employed as a music teacher, or as anything else for that matter! (Had he been a commoner, he never could have challenged Valmont to a duel.)
Another problem: in the novel, when Valmont breaks up with Madame de Tourvel at the Marquise's instigation, he does so by sending her a casually cruel letter -- copying it word for word from the Marquise's letter. I know it wouldn't have been very dramatic. However, in the film, when he announces the breakup to de Tourvel in a face-to-face confrontation, it takes away some of that casual cruelty... especially since he shows far too much emotion. Madame de Tourvel would have figured out that something was going on and he didn't really want to dump her.
Finally, the ending was artificially sweetened. A dying Valmont asks Danceny to tell Madame de T. that he loved her and that the only true happiness he had ever experienced was with her; Danceny goes over to see the ailing Madame de T. and gives her Valmont's message before she dies. The ending of the novel is far more ambiguous. While Valmont does profess love for Madame de Tourvel and regret for what he has done to her, whether he is sincere or faking it in order to win her over one more time and feed his own ego is left deliberately unresolved. And while he does write her a letter of apology, she is delirious when she received it. There is no consolation for her before she dies.
"Les Liaisons Dangereuses" is still awaiting a worthy screen adaptation. (The 1989 film "Valmont" by Milos Forman wasn't all that good and strayed way too far from the plot of the novel.) Personally, I'm inclined to think that the only way justice can be done to the book is in a miniseries of 6 hours or so, like the one they recently did of "Pride and Prejudice." It's the only way to capture the novel's psychological subtleties and the subplots that are quite crucial to character development.