Inspired by Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s salacious novel has found its way into both dance and music—in the form of a ballet by David Nixon and an opera by Conrad Susa and Philip Littell. However, it is in the world of feature film that Laclos’s diabolical characters have been most memorably portrayed. The first such film came on the cusp of the free-sex era, with a modernized adaptation by French writer-director Roger Vadim. Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1959) stars Jeanne Moreau and Gerard Philipe as Juliette de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, married diplomats in an open relationship. Valmont woos Marianne Tourvel, played by Annette Vadim, at a posh Swiss ski resort, accompanied by a soundtrack of Thelonious Monk’s jazz.
The screenplay for Dangerous Liaisons (1988), directed by Stephen Frears, was adapted from the stage play by Christopher Hampton, which premiered in 1985 and enjoyed a four-year run in London’s West End. Frears’s sharp, elegant drama stars a masterfully evil Glenn Close as the sinister Marquise de Merteuil. Close shares brilliant chemistry with John Malkovich as the snake-like Vicomte de Valmont. Michelle Pfeiffer radiates purity as Madame de Tourvel, and a young Uma Thurman rounds out the group as Cecile de Volanges. Set in stunning French chateaus and shot with polished camerawork, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards; it won for art direction, costume design, and adapted screenplay.
Milos Forman, the legendary director of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984), released his milder film adaptation, Valmont (1989), hot on the heels of Frears’s acclaimed production. Colin Firth plays a strangely dandyish Vicomte de Valmont, and Annette Benning is a sugary and slightly emotional Marquise de Merteuil. The screenplay by Jean-Claude Carrière only loosely adapts Laclos’s novel, rendering the devilish main characters with more lightness and humanity than the book.
The teensploitation flick Cruel Intentions (1999) brings Laclos’s novel to the world of jaded Manhattan prep school students. It features Sarah Michelle Gellar as Kathryn Merteuil and Ryan Phillippe as her stepbrother Sebastian Valmont. Kathryn (who in one scene snorts a tiny spoonful of cocaine hidden in her cross necklace) promises to have sex with her stepbrother if he can deflower the sniveling Cecile Caldwell, entertainingly played by Selma Blair. Sebastian agrees, but also sets his eye on the self-righteous prude Annette Hargrove, played by Reese Witherspoon. Annette is the recent author of an article in praise of virginity for Seventeen magazine. Slick and melodramatic, the movie by writer-director Roger Kumble is an innovative twist on Laclos’s story.
The three-hour television miniseries Dangerous Liaisons (2003), directed by Josée Dayan from a script by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, is set in the 1960s. The production stars Catherine Deneuve and Rupert Everett as the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, and features Nastassja Kinski as Madame de Tourvel and Leelee Sobieski as Cecile de Volanges. It was filmed in both French and English.