{"id":4429,"date":"2009-07-17T09:53:33","date_gmt":"2009-07-17T01:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=4429"},"modified":"2018-03-14T11:24:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T03:24:00","slug":"dangerous-liaisons-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2009\/07\/17\/dangerous-liaisons-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous Liaisons \u2013 Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"blog-dangerous-liaisons-02\" By far though, the most well-known and critically-acclaimed adaption of de Laclos\u2019 novel is Dangerous Liaisons<\/em>, with three famous names\u00a0 among the four lead actors. John Malkovich played Valmont. Glenn Close was Merteuil, and had been in a similar role in Fatal Attraction<\/em> just prior, and would be nominated again a second time for Best Actress for this.<\/p>\n

The two seducees (?) were Michelle Pfeiffer (de Tourvel) and new comer then Uma Thurman (C\u00e9cile) who\u2019d do a much talked about disrobing scene in the film.<\/p>\n

The film was released in Singapore cinemas here. And mind you, this was in 1989 when the island was still, well, prudish. The Restricted 18<\/em> film classification had just been introduced, and Dangerous Liaisons <\/em>was one of the first few films to be allowed here under the new classification.<\/p>\n

I watched this film 20 years ago, and remember it well for many things. This was the well-before days of computer imaging wizardry. What you see on the screen is what was filmed. The film was shot on location in historical buildings in France, the soundtrack by George Fenton from music adapted from baroque composers.<\/p>\n

In fact, I was introduced to Handel\u2019s organ concertos through this film \u2013 the second movement from \u201cThe Cuckoo and the Nightingale\u201d is heard in one scene when Valmont intentionally strings along one of Madame de Tourvel\u2019 spies to let him know what a morally upright character he can be.<\/p>\n

Most memorable of all though were the characters and acting. Pfeiffer was 31 years old when the film was made, but she looked a little older than her actual age belied. She was already a well-known model who\u2019d graced many TV commercials at this point. It was a little hard suspending the perception of a well-known American actress (with all the Yank mannerisms) play acting a French aristocrat.<\/p>\n

Pfeiffer struggled a little with the dialog. But the story centers on her as she\u2019s the primary recipient of Valmont and Merteuil\u2019s seduction jaunt, and it\u2019s her actions in response that determine the fate of both. So, her character is so key that the screen play at least made sure she had good dialog. Uma Thurman was an unknown face then, and the character she played was in sync with her acting personage \u2013 youth, beauty and wide-eyed innocence.<\/p>\n

But it was the Malkovich and Close (above picture<\/em>) duo that took the film for me. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s been a better pairing of actors playing conspirators first and mortal enemies later. The early conversations establishing their individual motivations for seduction \u2013 Valmont for the challenge, Merteuil for revenge \u2013 are rich with nuances, and the two actors\u2019 engagement is mesmerizing. These are two forces of nature, and their dance about each other in the scene where they lay their wager is like watching two poisonous snakes go at it.<\/p>\n

Of the seven Academy Awards Dangerous Liaisons<\/em> was nominated for, two were for Close and Pfeiffer in Acting (Malkovich was surprisingly not nominated) but neither took the award home. Not surprisingly as the 1989 film season comprised greats like Rain Man<\/em>, and The Accused.<\/em> Close and Pfeiffer were up against Jodie Foster in one of the two defining roles in her acting career, and Foster deservedly won the award. Dangerous Liaisons <\/em>eventually won three awards for the screen play, costumes and art direction.<\/p>\n

Concluded in the next post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By far though, the most well-known and critically-acclaimed adaption of de Laclos\u2019 novel is Dangerous Liaisons, with three famous names\u00a0 among the four lead actors. John Malkovich played Valmont. Glenn Close was Merteuil, and had been in a similar role<\/p>\n

Read More Dangerous Liaisons \u2013 Part 2<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-home","category-entertainment","wpcat-6-id","wpcat-10-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}