A scheming widow and her manipulative ex-lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman.A scheming widow and her manipulative ex-lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman.A scheming widow and her manipulative ex-lover make a bet regarding the corruption of a recently married woman.
- Won 3 Oscars
- 21 wins & 23 nominations total
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaWhen the novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" by Choderlos de Laclos was first published in 1782, it was considered so scandalous that when Queen Marie Antoinette commissioned a copy for her personal library, she had to have it bound in a blank cover so that no one would recognize the author's name or title.
- GoofsWhen Madame de Tourvel is about to surrender to Valmont, a tear comes out of her right eye; in the next shot, her eye is still dry.
- Quotes
Marquise de Merteuil: When I came out into society, I was fifteen. I already knew that the role I was condemned to, namely to keep quiet and do what I was told, gave me the perfect opportunity to listen and observe. Not to what people told me, which naturally was of no interest, but to whatever it was they were trying to hide. I practiced detachment. I learned how to look cheerful while, under the table, I stuck a fork into the back of my hand. I became a virtuoso of deceit. It wasn't pleasure I was after, it was knowledge. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think, and novelists to see what I could get away with. And in the end, I distilled everything to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.
- SoundtracksLa Cetra Op. 9, Concerto No. 9
Composed by Antonio Vivaldi
While children flock to the infinitely inferior Cruel Intentions, the viewer of more discerning taste will always stick with this classy, rich and enjoyable version of Dangerous Liaisons. The plot can be summarised simply but has several strong threads running together to create an involving game of seduction and cruelty. The say the film is nasty and cruel is to perhaps not stress highly enough how enjoyable it is for being so; it is done with such a taste for it that it makes it engaging while also being repulsive in the depths the games go to. It develops very satisfyingly and I easily found myself drawn into it. It is to the credit of Hampton's script that I found the characters both horrible but yet also engaging unlike Cruel Intentions where I just hated their vacuous selfishness and couldn't barely bring myself to care about them enough to even dislike them. No, with DL the characters are much stronger and much more appealing while simultaneously managing to be cruel and repulsive.
The cast rise to the material and I'm hard pressed to think of a similarly starry cast where all involved turn in such rich performances. Close is maybe not the most obvious of roles but she is all the better for it, turning in one of the most deliciously scheming and cruel characters I can recall seeing. With the excesses it is to her credit that she is so subtle and restrained for the majority. Malkovich has more fun with a showier character and makes it look easy where really it is challenging to play such an anti-hero and keep the audience onside while also pushing them away. Although these two make up the majority of the film, the smaller roles are also very well filled. Pfeiffer is brilliant; Thurman gets the mix of innocence and sexuality just right and Reeves is, well, not rubbish. I refrain from giving any credit to Kurtz simply because I think she lost whatever she was due by appearing in the same role in the MTV remake. Frears' direction is great and he makes good use of close-ups and other reoccurring techniques; he is well supported by his costume and set designers who combine to produce a tangible sense of time and place that is befitting the lavish feel of the whole film.
Overall this is a fine film that is driven by so many factors that it is hard to pin down just one. The script is well written and produces an engaging and tasty plot for adults to get into. The characters are both engaging and repulsive and are well delivered by a cast that give roundly strong performances. All this comes together to produce a fantastically cruel film that just shows how poor Cruel Intentions was and what an insult to the intelligence it is.
- bob the moo
- Feb 12, 2006
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Gefährliche Liebschaften
- Filming locations
- Château de Champs-sur-Marne, 31 rue de Paris, Champs-sur-Marne, Seine-et-Marne, France(Madame de Rosemonde's palace: interiors and park, Merteuil's interiors, staircase, Hall of mirrors)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $14,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $34,670,720
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $84,451
- Dec 26, 1988
- Gross worldwide
- $34,670,720
- Runtime1 hour 59 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1