Dangerous Liaisons
It really isn’t easy for me to explain the impression this movie has on me. Actually it turned out to be exactly like I have expected: I end up preferring the “Cruel Intentions” version since I don’t like the actors while I do admit that their acting was very good. Since everybody knows that this is the most reputated and obviously the best adaptation of “Les liaisons dangereuses”, I guess I will talk more about the bad points of it.
First of all, I think Glenn Close is way too old for that role. I don’t see any reason for a man to want to sleep with her, while Mme de Merteuil is one of the most charming and intriguing characters of the story.
Malkovich… Malkovich! Harr, I love him, but he’s one guy I would never sleep with either. He’s a great man for comedies and all, but he doesn’t really appear very charming to me. (Okay, Ryan Philippe isn’t the most charming guy either – and he’s a bad actor. But I thought you could feel his love for that stupid girl.)
And the rest: I didn’t quite like the end, everybody cried out loud, Valmont was way too violent towards Mme de Tourvel (violence is so… unclassy! XD) and the ending scenes were so… short. I also couldn’t quite follow the way Valmont actually seduced Mme de Tourvel. Ah well, maybe I just am not receptive enough towards this adaptation XD
Of course I admit that this version is much deeper than the teenie one (even though the novel is much more enlightning about basically everything, especially Mme de Merteuil’s background and intentions), but I still don’t really enjoy it. The best point of it was how the love between Merteuil and Valmont was depicted – I think they put a greater emphasis on this than in all the other versions.
In the end, I’m glad I have watched this movie because I have heard so much about it and wanted to watch it since ages. But I didn’t expect much and so I’m fine with watching a fairly good adaptation. (Now that I’m thinking about it… maybe I didn’t like the movie that much because I know the story so well already? *hrr*)