Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Directed by Stephen Frears
A scandalous Baroque era film: a review of Dangerous Liaisons, directed by Stephen Frears.
We originally watched this in my Costume and Fashion in Film class, and oh man, I had never heard of this film but it was a TIME. I wasn’t focused on plot the original time I watched it, since this was a costume class and we were supposed to exclusively focus on the clothes and how they tell the story, so I knew I had to buy it and rewatch it later. When I saw that it was on sale via iTunes for $5, I knew I had to nab it.
And my god, when I actually had to watch and pay more attention to the nuances outside of the clothing, I full on hated the characters even more than when I wasn’t paying attention. This movie is an excellent character study of vengeful people who are honestly pretty heartless at the end of the day. They literally ruined a young girl’s innocence for the sake of getting back at someone and it wasn’t even her. And that’s what makes the ending of this film so satisfying.
Now that I’ve done my preamble, let’s just jump straight into it.
Content
This is adapted from 1782 French novel, which is actually quite interesting, because they’re working with source material directly from the period. Dangerous Liaisons is set in France before the French Revolution, which you can tell from the attire and lavish lifestyle that these characters are living under; they’re clearly wearing Rococo clothing, the standard for France in the late 1700s before the revolution, and they are clearly living in indulgence.
Our main two characters, played by Glenn Close and John Malkovich, are splendidly wicked. Marquise de Merteuil, Close’s character, is plotting out revenge against her former lover, and enlists Vicomte de Valmont (Malkovich), a promiscuous man who seems to not care about who he has sex with, to seduce the virgin fiancé of her ex-lover. How could this go wrong?
Valmont does so. He gets the key for her bedroom chamber and sexually assaults the girl, then blackmails her into continuing his sexual escapades. The girl, Cécile, has spent her entire childhood raised in a convent. She has nothing to do with such sin, and, as expected, she is distraught when this happens. She writes to the orchestrator of these events, whom she seems to trust quite dearly: Marquise de Merteuil.
The Marquis tells her to continue having sex with him, which spirals down a path that isn’t really a good one for all of the characters.
Because I originally watched this in a costume class, I really have to talk about the costumes in this film. They’re brilliant. They’re authentic for the era, and I’d literally watch this movie only for the costumes because they’re so gorgeous.
Costuming is also an important part to the film; not only do they set the scene, but they also are essential nuances to the storyline. For example, Cécile dresses innocently in lighter fabrics and colors, but once she slowly becomes more and more corrupted, the fabrics themselves start to change along with the colors. You can also tell power dynamics based on the clothing, because who’s in charge is dressed to the max.
If you want a detailed analysis on costume, this is a site to check out.
Also, young Keanu Reeves is in this movie as Cécile’s daytime suitor (Valmont is her nighttime visitor, the one who gives her quote-on-quote sexual lessons). He looks adorable!
Overall Thoughts
Lots of affairs. Lots of sexual implications. Good costuming. Rococo. Betrayal. If any of these are up your alley, then this 100% is the film for you. It’s not something I could watch over and over again unless there’s a big gap in between watchings (I’m known to rewatch things I like again and again until I’m so sick of it), but I think this is a solid film for what it is.
