Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7878 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Turkish, Hungarian, Polish, Icelandic, Arabic, Czech, Greek
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A sumptuously mounted and photographed celebration of artful wickedness, betrayal and sexual intrigue among depraved 18th-century French aristocrats, Dangerous Liaisons (based on Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses) is seductively decadent fun. The villainous heroes are the Marquise De Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte De Valmont (John Malkovich), who have cultivated their mutual cynicism into a highly developed and exquisitely mannered form of (in-)human expression. Former lovers, they now fancy themselves rather like demigods whose mutual desires have evolved beyond the crudeness of sex or emotion. They ritualistically act out their twisted affections by engaging in elaborate conspiracies to destroy the lives of their less calculating acquaintances, daring each other to ever-more-dastardly acts of manipulation and betrayal. Why? Just because they can; it's their perverted way of getting their kicks in a dead-end, pre-Revolutionary culture. Among their voluptuous and virtuous prey are fair-haired angels played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Uma Thurman, who have never looked more ripe for ravishing. When the Vicomte finds himself beset by bewilderingly genuine emotions for one of his victims, the Marquise considers it the ultimate betrayal and plots her heartless revenge. Dangerous Liaisons is a high-mannered revel for the actors, who also include Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, and Keanu Reeves. --Jim Emerson

Special Features
Wide Screen
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Arabic\Czech\English\Greek\Hungarian\Icelandic\Polish\Turkish

Synopsis
Based on the infamous novel LES LIASONS DANGEREUSES by Choderlos de Laclos and the subsequent Christopher Hampton play, set in pre-revolutionary France, a cunning Marquise (Glenn Close) and a seductive Vicomte (John Malkovich) mastermind a cruel and complicated game of romantic manipulation. Set against the backdrop of high--society baroque boudoirs, filled with deceitful lovers and cunning sexual gamesmanship the Marquise and the Vicomte agree to a competition involving a virginal young bride (Uma Thurman) and a faithful wife (Michele Pfieffer). When the Vicomte successfully seduces the virtous and faithful wife they unexpectantly fall in love, breaking the rules of the inhuman Marquise's clever parlor game with vengeful results.

Customer Reviews

A classic
The 18th Century setting of this excellent adaptation of the Christopher Hampton play in pre-revolutionary France, serves much better to amplify the story line than any modern day adaptation ever could. The seemingly villianous characters of the Marquis de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) with their plotting and machinations, are something that only that ghastly age could produce, with social divisons so wide it caused a revolution, as well as its culture of female repression. The sumptious costumes and cinematography emphasising the immense wealth and indolence of the aristocrats. The tight corsets of the women out of which they could barely breathe, emphasising the social restrictions that suffocated their spirits. That we know that the ultimate fate of these aristocrats was with "Madame de Guillotine" contributes to the atmosphere a subtle danger that pervades throughout the film, central to the plot of sexual intrigue and manipulation.

John Malkovich exudes charisma as Valmont and really does look like a french aristocrat from those times. It is unfortunate then that his seduction of Madame de Tourvelle (Michelle Pfeiffer) is conducted in the manner of a drill sargent, making his character as a lady killer a bit unbelievable. Michelle Pfeiffer and Glen Close give the best performances in the film. The torment of Madame de Tourville, played by Pfeiffer, struggling between her love for Valmont and everything she believes in, is acted with exquisite emotional honesty.

It is interesting that author Francois Choderlos de Laclos who wrote the original novel in 1782, being a man, had such a sympathetic insight into the inequalities and double standards the women of the time had to endure. The character of the Marquis de Merteuil being the anti-hero here as a supremely intelligent, capable woman in a society which offers her no outlet for her abilities, apart from destruction and manipulation. Although excellently acted, Glenn Close who plays her reminds me scarily of (a young) Margaret Thatcher!

It is probably the most definative adaptation of the original novel we are ever likely to get, with its message of the timeless constancy of candid, unsophisticated human nature, with its flaws, desires and vunerabilities. A film version with Lindsey Duncan and Alan Rickman as Merteuil and Valmont respectively (who were in the original Broadway version) would have been awesome. But sadly not meant to be. That aside, this version is pretty close to perfection.

This film delights all the senses....
I can't believe someone could only give this film 1-star. Well, I suppose I can - you have to be very sensual to appreciate this to the full extent, and that can't be everyone.

Malkovich is a bit... uber-Malkovich, I suppose, but he's still brilliant and of course, phenomenally sexy. He does the steady derangement of Valmont (from having to juggle maintainance of his reputation and an unexpected real love), superbly. This is especially apparent from the "Beyond my control" scene until the end of the film. Close is also incredible - she should really have got some kind of award. The Marquise is a deep and intense character with a shady past that you see more of in the book, but never once did I think her overplayed. Close's scenes with Malkovich were, for me, steeped in frisson such as I've never before seen created between two actors. In this respect you half watch the film and half get seduced by it. Pfeiffer is excellent, but in some way her performance doesn't stand out for me as much as the others' do. She just plays her part very well. Keanu Reeves and Uma Thurman are good in their pawn roles. Men watching with ladies should derive pleasure from seeing the latter get a splendid pair out later on in the film (shame the Norfolk dude only tuned in for an hour).

Chocolate-box decadence
This is a convincing and compelling version of Choderlos de Laclos' epistolary novel, originally brought to the stage by Christopher Hampton. The sets, scenery and costumes are gorgeous and vividly created: witness the beginning scenes in which the golden couple of French society are dressed and prepared for going out by hordes of solemn servants. Glenn Close and John Malkovitch are on fine form as a pair of silky, poisonous plotters, in the days when aristos came with heads attached, whose greatest joy is playing various members of society against one another. The film's strength lies in the progress of Malkovitch's character whose malicious seductiveness begins to crumble against the onslaught of confusing emotional stress. The confusion is the viewer's too - has he really succumbed to love, or is he still using words as weapons of seduction. The climax of the film for me, was the "It's beyond my control" scene, in which Valmont subjects Mme de Tourval to excruciating emotional agony in order to relieve his own torment and attempt to regain that smooth and emotionless state with which he began the film.

Michelle Pfieffer and Uma Thurman are equally worthy of note as the pawns in a vicious game - even Keanu Reeves seems relaxed in his role as a penniless music teacher, as opposed to his stilted delivery in his later costume drama Dracula.

Whilst the support is good, the film undeniably beongs to Malkovitch and Close portraying two characters so assured of their own immortality, disaster strikes them both unawares. Note: the very final scene of the film in which the Marquise de Meurteuil removes her make-up after her fall from grace is one of the most poignant and horrifying: her inner ugliness is all of a sudden laid bare for all to see. Watch this with a bottle of wine and a box of Black Magic.