I eventually got
round to watching the second of the three Dangerous Liaisons
adaptations, this one taking the title from the book and released in
1988. It had a surprisingly star-studded cast, with a young John
Malkovich playing Valmont, opposite Glenn Close, Michelle Pfeiffer
and Uma Thurman as his various love interests.
Although the
peasant village that was shown briefly did have a very rough, clumsy
feel and the peasants were suspiciously clean by modern, gritty
standards, in general it felt as though a lot of effort was made with
historical accuracy, with the style of dress, furnishings and hair.
One thing that did jar with me was the American accents – I know
that, with the original being in French and the novel set in France,
even an RP English accent would have been 'wrong', but I guess I'm
just so used to period dramas using English accents that it seemed
odd. A younger Peter Capaldi with long hair and his strong Scottish
accent as a servant was totally worth it though.
The quality of the
acting was wonderful (except perhaps from Keanu Reeves, but I didn't
expect him to be able to move his face much back then either), and
the emotional intensity, particularly between Malkovich and Close,
kept me glued to the screen. I particularly liked that this
adaptation, while recognising that the Marquise de Merteuil is a very
selfish and manipulative character, also gave us a chance to
empathise with her rather than demonising her in the way that Cruel Intentions does.
Overall,
a very enjoyable and pretty accurate period adaptation.
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