Review of Dangerous Liaisons (1988) by Stuart K — 29 Mar 2014

Based upon the 1985 play Les liaisons dangereuses written by Christopher Hampton, who did the screenplay here, which in turn was based on the 1782 book of the same name by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, and directed by Stephen Frears (his first Hollywood film), this is a film about mind-games and manipulation, but it has some brilliant performances throughout.

In pre-revolutionary France, the Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) may look like a woman of money and power on the outside, but she's really a scheming bitch who can ruin people's reputations.

She wants to exact revenge on Cécile de Volanges (Uma Thurman), who her lover ran away with. She calls upon her partner in crime Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) to do it, however he's busy trying to seduce Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer), and initially refuses.

But when he learns Cécile's mother Madame de Volanges (Swoosie Kurtz) has warned Tourvel of Valmont's scheming, he decides to do the dirty on all of them, big time. It's a complex film, showing what bastards those in high society in 18th Century France could be, but Frears gets the best from his cast, and despite such grandeur with the lavish cinematography by Philippe Rousselot, it's actually a very focused and tightly done film.

It moved Frears from small British films onto Hollywood.