| Les Liaisons Dangereuses |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Synopsis The Vicomte de Valmont imagines himself as a modern day Don Juan, delighting in his conquests of even the most reluctant of female prey. Far from condemning his behaviour, his wife, Juliette, encourages him, with the proviso that he does not fall in love with any of his victims. But the inevitable happens. During a stay at a ski resort, Valmont seduces a girl, Marianne, and falls in love with her... In this film, Roger Vadim skilfully transposes Choderlos de Laclos's 1782 novel Les liaisons dangereuses to the swinging '60s. The era of unfettered individualism and sexual permissiveness provides a suitably appropriate backdrop to the predatory adventures of the Vicomte de Valmont. |
| This is quite a satisfying film, although it is clearly not in the league of Vadim's New Wave contemporaries, such as Truffaut or Godard. Lacking true emotional impact and depth of characterisation, the film does feel a little insubstantial, incomplete. It doesn't give much in the way of explanation for why Juliette and Valmont behave as they do, so Vadim's analysis appears typically shallow and unconvincing. On the plus side, the photography is on a par with that of the emerging New Wave films. It reinforces the extent of Valmont's power over his victims and evokes a real sense of tension between Valmont and his wife. Subtle piano music from Thelonious Monk adds greatly to the atmosphere, whilst the liveliness of the 1960s is brilliantly captured by a wild New Year's Eve party. Jeanne Moreau and G�rard Philipe are splendidly paired as the vampirish couple, Juliette and Valmont, who play a dangerous and increasingly complex game of psychological chess. Moreau is seldom seen to be so intense, so manipulative, so venomous, as in this film - a chilling performance. Also, watch out for a very young Jean-Louis Trintignant, who would later become better known for his role in Lelouch's 1966 land-mark film Un homme et une femme. Whilst not as grand as Stephen Frears' 1988 film of the same name, Vadim's Les liaisons dangereuses has much to commend it and is worthy of a fresh reappraisal. members.netscapeonline.co.uk/jameswtravers/ nf_Les_liaisons_dangereuses_rev.html |
| Cast |
| Jeanne Moreau .... Juliette de Merteuil G�rard Philipe .... Vicomte de Valmont Annette Vadim .... Marianne Tourvel Jeanne Val�rie .... Cecile Volanges Nicolas Vogel .... Court Boris Vian .... Prevan Jean-Louis Trintignant .... Danceny Simone Renant .... Madame Volanges. Madaline Lambert Gillian Hills Paquita Thomas |
| Review By Desson Howe Washington Post Staff Writer September 08, 1989 Twenty-nine years before British director Stephen Frears's recent wig-and-powdered "Dangerous Liaisons," with Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer, there was "Les Liaisons Dangereuses," a rompy French version directed by Roger Vadim, who was just over a dangerous liaison himself with Brigitte Bardot. Updating Choderlos de Laclos' novel (written 177 years before that), Vadim set the bedroom intrigue against a Parisian eve-of-the-'60s world of jazz and sexual permissiveness, cast French siren Jeanne Moreau as predatory Juliette (the Close role in Frears's film) and gave his wife Annette Vadim the innocent-prey role (later played by Pfeiffer). What Vadim couldn't have known was how his movie, now retitled "Dangerous Liaisons 1960" (and made in 1959), would have played at Key Theatre 1989 with its dated air of finger-snapping cool; or how he comes across now, sauntering on-camera in a ham-fisted director's introduction, casting aside a black cape and saying things like, "Ah don' wan' yoo to sink that in France, all women be'ave lak Juliette." Uh, Roger . . . |
| To watch the movie, though, is still fabulous -- not because it's a Great Film -- but because it bounces along as if it were a great film. Made during the heyday of the French "Nouvelle Vague," the movement that launched Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and several other directors, it aspires to cinematic hipness -- the camera peeps at the sexual players from behind chairs, even from under the sheets, and there's a wonderful music track supplied by Thelonious Monk. |
| But, as with so many other French movies and songs, "Liaisons 19-whatever" is blithely unaware of its French prissiness -- which makes it all the more fun to watch. Picture then-young vixen Moreau parading around in an ocelot fur coat and married to fellow sexual hunter Gerard Philipe (imagine "Hawaii Five-0's" Jack Lord imitating "The Thin Man's" William Powell imitating Maurice Chevalier); the two swinger-vampires are constantly sniffing the city lovescape for fresh blood. Or a young Jean-Louis Trintignant playing a geeky, marriage-shy mathematician. Or the jazz club-den where, as a climactic death takes place, inspired "Negro" jazzmen -- frequently movie metaphors for "decadence" -- wail and jam in the background, amorally oblivious to the foreground hanky-panky |