Valmont
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Movie Reviews of Valmont
Movie Review: Delightful - Excellent cast but not good enough script
Summary: 4 Stars
I have watched both Valmont and Dangerous Liaisons DVDs and I definitely prefer Valmont. It¡存 true that the script for Dangerous Liaisons is more complete but Valmont gives more depth to each character. In fact, every time when I watch Valmont, I like it better.Colin Firth as Valmont is charming and you¡奸l truly believe why women fall for him even they knew he¡存 evil. This movie is not his best performance, but he¡存 done it beautifully and very easily, he became the centre of the movie for every frame he¡存 in. I think Annette Bening¡存 not good enough to play Merteuil as she laughed so much that it¡存 a bit annoying. Still, she¡存 delighted to look at in the movie with the wonderful costume. Cecil played by Fairuza Balk is best cast in addition to Colin Firth. She¡存 sweet, young, and energetic and is able to convey her emotions simply with her eyes. I just love to see her. For Meg Tilly, she¡存 sweet too but her performance becomes not profession enough when the above three actors are present.
Back to the story, I have two comments to make. Firstly, it¡存 really wrong to have two focuses in the same movie ¡V one is on the evil game between Valmont & Merteuil while another one is the grow-up of Cecil. This focus has to be the game between Valmont & Merteuil. But there is not even a line to explain the relationship between them which makes audience quite confused at the beginning if the audience didn¡宇 read the book. So, when Merteuil told Valmont she still loves him, I simply doubt it because it's not convincing.
Secondly, the ending is so bad. In particular, the duel scene between Valmont and Decenary happens so suddenly and I get lost why Valmont wanted to kill himself like this. He seems lost his mind after he found out Merteuil was in bed with Dacenary. But as I just mentioned, you won't believe Valmont is so in love with Merteuil that he wants to die instead.
I have also watched the big hit done by Milos Forman ¡V Amadeus. In terms of production quality, it's not worse than Amadeus. I think Valmont deserved a better rating as it¡存 a delightful and sweet movie with specular scenary. It just came in bad timing.
Movie Review: Better Cast Than Dangerous Liaisons (also, potential spoiler alert)
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie was made around the same time as the more famous Dangerous Liaisons, but is a much more enjoyable film. The cast is much better. Cecile and Danceny are appropriate in age and naivety, and Colin Firth and Annette Bening are MUCH more believable as seducer and seductress than are John Malkovich and Glenn Close. While the latter actors do possess a certain Machiavellian quality, I find them more creepy than attractive in these roles, therefore, hard to accept as successful in the arts of seduction. Meg Tilly's Presidente de Tourvel, while perhaps less overtly appealing than Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays the role in Dangerous Liaisons, is more believable in the role because of her comparative lack of sophistication and worldliness.
Valmont also has a much lighter tone than Dangerous Liaisons, which may belie the title, but in my opinion, is truer to the epistolary novel on which both films are based. My only complaint is with the script of Valmont, which changes some vital aspects of the story and robs the viewer of a bit of satisfaction with the ending. The film has Valmont immediately rejecting Presidente de Tourvel after seducing her, seemingly more eager to claim his reward from Madam de Merteuil, who rejects his claim for no apparent reason. In the novel, Valmont continues to see Presidente de Tourvel and seems to be sincerely falling in love with her. This evokes Madame de Merteuil's jealousy, which is why she rejects Valmont and forces him to abandon Presidente de Tourvel. The film also robs us of Valmont's delicious postmortem revenge on Madame de Merteuil. In the film, she is certainly sad, but her duplicity remains a secret and her face remains unravaged. The book gives us a much more satisfying ending in that respect. It also changes what happens to Presidente de Tourvel. While these changes may be in keeping with the films overall light tone, it is much less satisfying than the more vengeful version.
However, all in all, this is a more enjoyable film to watch than it's more famous rival.
Movie Review: "One must always honor a bet."
Summary: 4 Stars
This lavish retelling of Les Liaisons Dangereuses stars Annette Benning as the Marquise de Merteuil, a nasty aristocrat who delights in manipulating those around her. She is outraged when her lover makes plans to marry the young and virtuous Cecile,(who is in love with her music teacher), so she engages the services of the notorious playboy the Vicomte de Valmont to cuckold him. Before he can do it, however, Valmont falls in love with a proper, married woman, Madame de Tourvel. Learning of this, Merteuil bets Valmont that he can't bed Tourvel, and he happily takes up the challenge.
The plot was so complex that I needed a scorecard to keep straight who was doing what to whom and why. All the action swirls around Benning's Merteuil and she's malicious and flirty enough, but her American accent detracts from her character. In fact, the array of American and British accents and their 21st century delivery spoil the illusion that the story is set in 18th century France. As Valmont, Colin Firth is definite eye-candy but not nearly lecherous enough; he's boyish and pitiable instead of cunning and ruthless. Meg Tilley (Tourvel) and Henry Thomas, (the music teacher) are incredibly bland and look out of place in a period piece.
On the plus side, the Oscar-nominated costumes are breathtakingly opulent and palatial sets and locations are flawless. It's the actors that keep the movie from being really good; they're more common than genteel and I didn't believe any of them. 3.5 stars.
Movie Review: the indy version of an old story
Summary: 4 Stars
I greatly enjoyed this version of Liasons Dangereuses. While lower key and not as racy as the Malkovich version, I also thought it was more realistic and a more complete portrait of the society. This is like an indy version as opposed to the lavishly grand hollywood production that came out at the same time: rather than offer simple moralistic outcomes, its end is far more ambiguous and the characters are deeper, without simple labels that can be attached to them in the facile hollywood manner.
Firth is quite brilliant as Valmont. At once attractive and vulnerable, this great egoist is reaching a point of boredom in his conquests, actually beginning to question himself yet knowing he probably can't change much to better himself as a human being. He knows despair and has some notion of what he is missing and what he is destroying. This is displayed in his relationship with the Bening character, who is a female version of himself. In a way, they are well matched, but impossible to love and disastrous as partners, sowing destruction out of pique and boredom. It is awful to witness.
The adjunct characters, such as the ingenue and her callow boyfriend, are also string. What happens to them is not spelled out, though they move on through life as implied in the film.
Recommended. The setting and costumes are wonderful, as is the music typical of Foreman films. Foreman is one of the greatest historical filmmakers.
Movie Review: SNAIL MALE 4 Stars
THIS one reeks of delicious intrigue, deception, vengeance - all of those delightful human emotions - lurking just, just under the surface. Unlike the 'other' movie - [equally stellar but more 'theatrical']; the Forman version seeps along like a grand old saga - somewhat along the lines of the delicious 1930 period pieces from MGM. Colin Firth makes a suitably dashing lead, Annette Bening is very fetching as the 'Manipulator'; Meg Tilly -fragile and so so vunerable, but it's really the tragic dimension of the child-like pawns - Cecile [Fairuza Balk - stunning!] and Danceny [Henry Thomas - light-years from "E.T."] that impress and unlike the other versions quick conclusion - this one has just that added 'something' to surprise even the staid old groom 'Gercourt' - Jeffrey Jones ["Lolita" somewhat reimagined]..A Great Dark Comedy of Manners and thwarted love and lust!
Superior Art Direction and Costume Deign and quite a worthy double bill to the equally shunned "Affair of the Necklace" and possibly "Quills" - a great fest for the "Period Lover".