Stephen Frears (1988)
The film version of Christopher Hampton’s play is an accomplished tautology. I saw and enjoyed Les liaisons dangereuses on the West End stage in 1986. Although I don’t remember it as physically static, the words were the star of the show: the expert delivery of Hampton’s dialogue, by a cast headed by Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman, itself imparted a strong sense of movement. Stephen Frears’ players – Glenn Close (the Marquise de Mertueil), John Malkovich (the Vicomte de Valmont), Michelle Pfeiffer (Madame de Tourvel), Uma Thurman (Cécile de Volanges) et al – are no slouches in this department either: their line readings often tell us all we need to know. On screen, of course, it’s not all that we get. There are close-ups on the actors’ faces to underline what their voices are conveying. As well as the score that George Fenton composed for the film, there’s music by Gluck, Handel and Bach. Frears doesn’t lay this on thick and Philippe Rousselot’s lighting delivers some beautifully striking mug shots. Both still feel surplus to requirements.
In eighteenth-century Paris, with the 1789 Revolution just a few years away, Merteuil and Valmont, former lovers, are now rivals-cum-partners in an enterprise that tests their ingenuity and gives them pleasure at the expense of others. Seduction is the main weapon used in their cruelly manipulative games. Merteuil, smarting from wounded pride after the (unseen) Comte de Bastide has ended their affair, plots revenge by arranging the bedding and public disgrace of Cécile, Bastide’s virginal fiancée. This young girl, fresh from the convent, is under the watchful eye of her mother (Swoosie Kurtz), who is also Merteuil’s cousin. The Marquise seeks to enlist Valmont’s help but he’s already engaged in a project of his own – to bed and bring low the genuinely pious Madame de Tourvel who, with her politician husband away on business, is currently a guest in the home of Valmont’s aunt, Madame de Rosemonde (Mildred Natwick). Impressed by the breathtaking nerve of his undertaking, Merteuil offers to sleep with Valmont again if he succeeds in seducing Madame de Tourvel and supplies written proof of the conquest. Valmont takes up the challenge. Viewers of the film, even if they don’t know Hampton’s play or Choderlos de Laclos’ epistolary novel of 1782 on which it’s based, can probably guess that the two nasty protagonists will eventually get their comeuppance. The success of Dangerous Liaisons therefore depends on the convoluted journey to its destination being a chilling and beguiling one. It rarely is because nearly every stylishly spoken line from Merteuil and Valmont is accompanied by a confirmatory, often arch facial expression. In terms of impact, the two things somehow cancel each other out.
Glenn Close reads her many lines with pinpoint accuracy but without much surprise. This is physically one of her best performances, though. The film’s prologue and epilogue, both at the Marquise’s dressing table and wordless, are two of its highlights. In the former, attended by her maids, she puts on her face and costume. In the latter, after Valmont’s death and her public humiliation at the Paris Opera, Merteuil sits alone, removing her make-up. In between, Close always carries herself with formidable technical control (her portrayal gives new meaning to ‘war paint’ and ‘dressed to kill’). John Malkovich is less successful and, I think, miscast as Valmont. His readings are adroit but his snaky look is too much a giveaway – this Valmont has charm but it’s hardly a deceptive charm. Malkovich is best in occasional, unexpected bursts of physical expression. The only performance that really yields emotionally is Michelle Pfeiffer’s: she makes Madame de Tourvel’s undeserved fate tragic. As the Chevalier Danceny, Cécile’s suitor, Keanu Reeves is as handsomely pointless as his character is perhaps meant to be. The liveliest contributions in smaller roles come from Mildred Natwick and Peter Capaldi as Valmont’s valet. The film won three Academy Awards – for Hampton’s adapted screenplay, Stuart Craig and Gérard James’ art direction, and James Acheson’s costume design. Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer wear their splendid outfits superbly although Dangerous Liaisons also features a deal of what now seems like male gazing at unclothed female bodies.
7 July 2022
