Dangerous Liaisons

Director: Stephen Frears
Year: 1988
Cast: Glenn Close; John Malkovich; Michelle Pfeiffer; Joe Sheridan; Swoosie Kurtz; Keanu Reeves; Mildred Natwick; Uma Thurman;Peter Capaldi; Valerie Gogan; Laura Benson; Joanna Pavlis; Nicholas Hawtrey; Paulo Abel Do Nascimento.

Tagline: Lust. Seduction. Revenge. The Game As You've Never Seen It Played Before.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094947/

What a decadent and lusty film!

Predictably set in the scandalous Paris of the 18th century—nest of dissoluteness for antonomasia, plays of unscrupulous seduction and sadist corruption unroll within the walls of some aristocrats' sumptuous palaces. But forget the location, the costumes and the setting, and just concentrate in the manneristical and virtuoso dialogues—proper of an Oscar Wilde—between the bored Marquise de Merteuil (admirably played by a malicious Glenn Close) and his ex-lover & partner in crime Valmont (a young and ambiguously attractive John Malkovich) about love, desire and 'hanger'. Their double plan is seducing a virgin creature and a faithfully married woman—reward being a night of passion between the two, reminiscent of their past love. These women though, sheltered respectively by a vigilant mother and a strong Christian faith, look impenetrable. Nevertheless, “hindrance” is for Valmont nothing more than a rousing challenge. Their stratagems of seduction are as baroque as the environments surrounding them. Their longing is as decadent as the époque they live in and the social status they belong to. At first, I felt intrigued by their plot, but uncomfortable witnessing the dodgy way Valmont introduces himself into the virgin’s room. However, any moral thought is dissipated when all the targets (including the candid Keanu Reeves alias Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny) gradually surrender to their seductors and let their pleasure go, "beyond their control".

The cerebral and cynical conversations between the two master minds leave finally space to a sublime account by Valmont of his sexual affair with the married lady (Michelle Pfeiffer), which I found the most fervent and yet elegant & elusive report of a ‘gallant encounter’. Valmont is in love, and a devastating knock-on effect is inevitably activated. Deceit and lust slip involuntary into love—perhaps mistaken with passion—and jealousy. The upshot is tragic in the most classic sense. But unlike the classic tragedy in which the spotless hero is the innocent sufferer of adverse events (what faults did Oedipus have of marrying his unknown mother?), here is staged, what I call, a "Shakespearian counter-tragedy" where there is a faulty hero perpetrating a fatal error (Hamlet’s indecisiveness was his weakness and trusting his uncle his lethal mistake): the hero this time is the champion of lust, and his weakness? To fall in love… with overwhelming consequences.