Add to this Chinese and Korean films, a 2003 French modern-day miniseries, two operas, and several ballets. The 1988 Stephen Frears film Dangerous Liaisons, a luxurious star-studded screen version of the play, was followed by Miloš Forman's lightweight Valmont, and then by Cruel Intentions, transplanted into the world of 1990s privileged American teenagers. An excellent reflection of the multitude of selves we all hold.Les Liaisons dangereuses, the 1782 novel of sexual intrigue by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, has become one of the most adapted literary classics in the two decades since it was reincarnated as a hit play by the British dramatist Christopher Hampton.
Private letters dispatched at cross purposes allows for an intriguing and amusing insight into character what they say to one person and hide from another, virtuous and indignant here, debauched and desirous there. In any case, I love this format in literature.
His machinations, his successes, are all the more easy because of his gender, and the resulting freedoms it accords him. La Marquise, on the other hand, demands to be his equal, or even better: in manipulation, in deceit, in pursuit of pleasure. Valmont, the rake, the seducer, the ruiner of women is a male character so often done, before and since, as to be stereotypical. For this reason, the most significant character has always been, for me, La Marquise de Merteuil. Without a doubt, external, societal judgment is still evident. This has been my experience of male-female heterosexual relations, and I wonder how these themes are played out within the homosexual or trans communities. Perhaps the men reading this will correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think there are words used with the same derision for male behaviour, even 'manwhore' and 'male slut' are not without positive connotations, part of male banter. 'Slut' and 'whore' are judgment terms that still have real power. We have online sites for showcasing clips of sexual acts unknowingly filmed, for revenge porn, for rating the attractiveness and 'easiness' of others. People still talk of 'conquest' over another, if not always using that specific word, the idea is the same. Whether that be the sexual preference they claim, how they go about their romantic/sexual lives, or how their sexuality is displayed to others. We live in a society in which a person is still judged on their sexual self. It seems to me that Laclos' work has a real modern relevance. It has left me wanting to read the original, and i'll be purchasing it after finishing the review (yes, i'm THAT enthused). I read an English translation many years ago and loved it, but this version brought it to life for me. If you are new to Laclos, this is a great place to start. This dramatisation from the cast of the Donmar production is worth listening to for Janet McTeer alone. As much as I enjoyed the 1988 movie, the cast here is perfect. It's a great story, which I downloaded as an Audible freebie. One might be forgiven for concluding that the moral of the story is that the entire French aristocracy were worthless parasites who deserved the tumbrils soon to come. He has his own conquests in mind, however, and the two of them spar with at first friendly affection as they execute their separate schemes, but the two of them wind up ruining lives, breaking hearts, and eventually, causing more than one death as their rivalry escalates.
Dangerous liaisons broadway how long is the show movie#
Sexually rapacious and (deep down) embittered by the double standards that allow men to boast of their conquests while women have to carefully guard their reputations, she enjoys manipulating people and ruining lives, and enlists a friend of hers, the equally amoral playboy Vicomte de Valmont, to deflower the virginal fiancee (played in the movie by a young Uma Thurman) of a lover who just broke up with her. The Marquise de Merteuil (played in the 1988 movie by Glenn Close) is a rich widow who has clawed her way to the top the only way a woman can in her society. It's marvelously acted with all the venom and petty viciousness befitting scheming, amoral aristocrats whose only ambition is sex and the ruination of lives. This was an abridged full-cast performance, in epistolary form, of the play, which is based on the 1782 novel about French aristocrats engaging in recreational adultery and competitive seduction.
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