Dangerous Liaisons was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures on December 21, 1988. The film received widespread critical acclaim, with high praise for the performances by Close and Pfeiffer and the screenplay, production values, costumes and soundtrack. Grossing $34.7 million against its $14 million budget, it was a modest box-office success. It received seven nominations at the 61st Academy Awards, including for the Best Picture, and won three: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Costume Design, and Best Production Design.[2]
Plot
In pre-Revolution Paris, the Marquise de Merteuil plots revenge against her ex-lover, the Comte de Bastide, who recently ended their relationship. To soothe her wounded pride and embarrass Bastide, she seeks to arrange the seduction and disgrace of his young virgin fiancée, Cécile de Volanges, who has only recently been presented to society after spending her formative years in the shelter of a convent.
Merteuil calls on the similarly unprincipled Vicomte de Valmont, another ex-lover of hers, to do the deed. Valmont declines as he is plotting to seduce Madame de Tourvel, the devoutly religious wife of a member of Parliament and a current guest of Valmont's aunt, Madame de Rosemonde. Amused and incredulous at Valmont's hubris, Merteuil ups the ante: if Valmont somehow succeeds in seducing Tourvel and can furnish written proof, Merteuil will sleep with him as well. Never one to refuse a challenge, Valmont accepts.
Tourvel rebuffs all of Valmont's advances. Searching for leverage, he instructs his page Azolan to seduce Tourvel's maid, Julie and gain access to Tourvel's private correspondence. One of the letters intercepted is from Cécile's mother and Merteuil's cousin, Madame de Volanges, warning Tourvel that Valmont is nefarious and untrustworthy. Valmont resolves to seduce Cécile as revenge for her mother's accurate denunciation of him.
At the opera, Cécile meets the charming and handsome Chevalier Raphael Danceny, who becomes her music teacher. They fall in love with coaxing from Merteuil, who knows that Danceny, as a nobleman of lesser rank, naive, young, and not particularly wealthy, can never qualify as a bona fide suitor.
Valmont gains access to Cécile's bedchamber on a pretext and sexually assaults her. As she pleads with him to leave, he blackmails her into giving up physical resistance, and the scene ends. On the pretext of illness, Cécile remains locked in her chambers, refusing all visitors. A concerned Madame de Volanges asks Merteuil to speak to Cécile; Cécile confides in Merteuil, naively assuming that she has Cécile's best interests at heart. Merteuil advises Cécile to welcome Valmont's advances; she says young women should take advantage of all the lovers they can acquire in a society so repressive and contemptuous of women. The result is a "student-teacher" relationship; by day, Cécile is courted by Danceny, and each night, she receives a sexual "lesson" from Valmont. Merteuil begins an affair with Danceny.
After a night in Valmont's bed, Cécile miscarries her child. Meanwhile, Valmont has won Tourvel's heart, but at a cost: the lifelong bachelor playboy falls in love. In a fit of jealousy, Merteuil mocks Valmont and refuses to honor her end of their agreement unless Valmont breaks up with Tourvel. Valmont abruptly dismisses Tourvel with a terse excuse: "It's beyond my control." Overwhelmed with grief and shame, Tourvel retreats to a monastery where her health deteriorates rapidly.
Despite the breakup, Merteuil still refuses to honor the agreement and even declares "war." She informs Danceny that Valmont has been sleeping with Cécile. Danceny challenges Valmont to a duel, ending with the latter voluntarily running into Danceny's sword. With his dying breath, Valmont asks Danceny to communicate to Tourvel his true feelings for her; he also warns Danceny about Meurteuil and gives him his collection of intimate letters from her as proof of the veracity of his warnings. Valmont tells Danceny to circulate them after he has read them.
After hearing Valmont's message from Danceny, Tourvel dies. Meanwhile, following Valmont's death, Merteuil sinks into madness and pain. Later, she attends a show at the opera but leaves after being booed by her former friends and sycophants, implying that all of Paris has learned the full range of her schemes and depredations due to Danceny's circulation of the letters.
Liaisons was the final film appearance of Academy Award and Tony Award-nominated actress Mildred Natwick.[6]Drew Barrymore and Sarah Jessica Parker were considered for the role of Cécile before it went to Thurman.[7]Annette Bening went through several auditions for the role of the courtesan Émilie, but in the end the role went to Laura Benson.[8] Bening would go on to play the role of the Marquise de Merteuil in Miloš Forman's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Valmont, a year later.
During production Malkovich had an affair with Pfeiffer. His six-year marriage to actress Glenne Headly ended shortly thereafter.[9][10][11]
Thurman later revealed that she stripped for this film because she thought it was the right choice at the time despite her immense nervousness, but she hated how "voyeuristic" the final cut of the scene was and resolved not to go naked in a movie again.[12]
Dangerous Liaisons holds a score of 94% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Stylish, seductive, and clever, Stephen Frears' adaptation is a wickedly entertaining exploration of sexual politics."[14] On Metacritic it has a score of 74 based on 17 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[15] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.[16]
Pauline Kael in The New Yorker described it as "heaven – alive in a way that movies rarely are."[15]Hal Hinson in The Washington Post wrote that the film's "wit and immediacy is extraordinarily rare in a period film. Instead of making the action seem far off, the filmmakers put the audience in the room with their characters."[17]Roger Ebert called it "an absorbing and seductive movie, but not compelling."[18]Variety considered it an "incisive study of sex as an arena for manipulative power games."[19]Vincent Canby in The New York Times hailed it as a "kind of lethal drawing-room comedy."[20]
The Time Out reviewer wrote of Christopher Hampton's screenplay that "one of the film's enormous strengths is scriptwriter Christopher Hampton's decision to go back to the novel, and save only the best from his play".[21]James Acheson and Stuart Craig were also praised for their work, with Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times stating that "the film's details of costuming (by The Last Emperor's James Acheson) and production design (by Stuart Craig of Gandhi and The Mission) are ravishing".[22] All three would go on to win Academy Awards for their work on this film.
Glenn Close received considerable praise for her performance; she was lauded by The New York Times for her "richness and comic delicacy,"[20] while Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that, once she "finally lets loose and gives way to complete animal despair, Close is horrifying."[15] Roger Ebert thought the two lead roles were "played to perfection by Close and Malkovich... their arch dialogues together turn into exhausting conversational games, tennis matches of the soul."[18]
Michelle Pfeiffer was widely acclaimed for her portrayal, despite playing, in the opinion of The Washington Post, "the least obvious and the most difficult" role. "Nothing is harder to play than virtue, and Pfeiffer is smart enough not to try. Instead, she embodies it."[17] The New York Times called her performance a "happy surprise."[20] Roger Ebert, considering the trajectory of her career, wrote that "in a year that has seen her in varied assignments such as Married to the Mob and Tequila Sunrise, the movie is more evidence of her versatility. She is good when she is innocent and superb when she is guilty."[18] Pfeiffer would go on to win the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance.
The casting of John Malkovich proved to be a controversial decision that divided critics. The New York Times, while admitting there was the "shock of seeing him in powdered wigs", concluded that he was "unexpectedly fine. The intelligence and strength of the actor shape the audience's response to him".[20]The Washington Post was similarly impressed with Malkovich's performance: "There's a sublime perversity in Frears' casting, especially that of Malkovich... [he] brings a fascinating dimension to his character that would be missing with a more conventionally handsome leading man."[17]Variety was less impressed, stating that while the "sly actor conveys the character's snaky, premeditated Don Juanism... he lacks the devilish charm and seductiveness one senses Valmont would need to carry off all his conquests".[19]
Uma Thurman gained recognition from critics and audiences;[23][24] film critic Roger Ebert found her to be "well cast" in her "tricky" key role.[18]
In 2022, the series Dangerous Liaisons premiered on premium television provider Starz. According to writer Harriet Warner, the series is loosely inspired by the novel and explores the marquise's life before the events of the play.[37]
