Les liaisons dangereuses

Oh Lord, this was really bad! You think with all those marvellous actresses and actors and this brilliant story, nothing can go wrong, but - they marred it completely.

Starting with hilarious miscasting (Catherine Deneuve is far too old and not sensuous enough), over boring, wooden dialogue to incompetent camera work - there is one scene which has two of the leading characters talking to another, and you don't even get to see the face of one of them!

Shifting the story into the present may be an interesting idea, but the script does not take the simplest care in adapting to this.

See another version of this, the Stephen-Frears-film if you can. But do miss this one!

I saw this on DVD, with French sub-titles (I'm learning French).

I'm absolutely amazed at the number of commentators on this site who disliked this production. I've seen four versions of the work, and in my opinion this is by far the best. It is ravishing to look at, the story is compelling and presented with great clarity and sophistication, and the acting is outstanding. Yes, Catherine Deneuve was too old for the part. But she didn't look it, or act it; regardless of the date of her birth, she retains an allure that I for one would find difficult to resist if I had the honour and good fortune to meet her. As for Rupert Everett, who cares about whether he's used botox or not? He's got exactly the right sort of snake-like ability to fascinate and attract. And both of them can actually act. I think it's one of Catherine Deneuve's very best performances, probably because of the quality of the screenplay with which she had to work.

I found it compelling from the very first moment, and I'm about to buy the DVD.

This version of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" is, in my opinion, a very good 'modern' adaptation/expansion of one of my favourite stories. I liked the 1988 version very much. As an expanded version, this one was delicious.

I didn't find the duel/contest to be very convincing. Having said that, I think this is my only negative criticism of the picture. I didn't bother to see the English version. The French version with English subtitles worked very well.

As for how this production looks:

This mini-series is absolutely gorgeous. The director captures the essence of 1960s French Riviera without over-glamorizing, which is a good thing, because it is not necessary. The outdoor scenes (especially the horseback ones) are stunning. Costumes are very accurate and well thought out, especially for the female leads. LeeLee Sobieski looks alternately frumpy and seductive, just as most 18 year olds do in real life; showing a girl still figuring out how to present herself to the world. Deneuve's high society duds are probably the most spectacular, as they should be. Her character is draped in vivid reds and evocative jewelry. Kinski's clothes are virginal and chunky for the most part, as befits the wife of an ambassador...and yet her passionate exoticism cannot be held in check, and wins over repression in the end.

The storyline is the one we know well. I won't belabor telling it again. The mini-series was supposedly shot in both french and english language, but I did not find this to be true. I saw the english version. Some scenes were definitely shot in english, but others were simply dubbed...and it shows, which is too bad. If you rent or buy the DVD, I would advise watching it in french with english subtitles (if you can't speak french). Most, if not all, of Kinski and Everett's scenes in the english version were shot in english, while Deneuve and Everett's were mostly dubbed. In fact, there were only a few moments in the entire thing where Deneuve's lines were in english. For me, this created distance between her character and me as a viewer. Of course, her character is viciously evil and not one you would normally identify with, but villains CAN be empathetic. I did not find that here. Rupert Everett is slick and Machiavellian, with a slight vulnerability that is just right. LeeLee Sobieski is much more believable in this role than Uma Thurman was in the 1988 version. Nastassja Kinski, as Marie Tourvel, is the standout here. She does a marvelous job of representing the character arc (virginal wife to repentant adultress) that is required. Kinski wrote the book on portraying these kinds of heartbreaking roles (Tess, Magic of Marciano, American Rhapsody, The Claim...) and it is a shame she has been largely overlooked by Hollywood.

I highly recommend this mini-series, but watch the DVD in french with english subtitles, in order to get a better grasp of Deneuve.

There is a literary work of the same name that also serves as title to this article (Les liaisons dangereuses or Dangerous Liaisons), which was written by the writer Pierre Choderlos Laclos (1741-1803) and published in 1782, with a plot showing the human miseries of the high classes as far as feelings are concerned. Broadly speaking, it is a story of seduction, betrayal and revenge, where perfidy is the dominant element of that society of nobles, where love is nothing more than a caprice or a temporary passion. The work has been taken to the cinema in several occasions, but the versions more known are the French one of 1959, directed by Roger Vadim with acting of Jeanne Moreau and Gérard Philipe; the British production of 1988, directed by Stephen Frears; and the third one, which is the subject of this article, co-production Canada-United Kingdom-France, in miniseries for TV (2003), directed by the Frenchman José Dayan, set in Parisian society in 1960. Dayan chose a first-class actress to play the role of the seductive beautiful Madame Isabel de Merteuil, Catherine Deneuve, an elegant woman from head to toe, with a very suggestive look and really attractive movements. The libido of any man rises when he watches the figure of this actress in this miniserial. His interpretation as an entity devoid of love, full of ambitions and selfishness is simply masterful. The other antihero is the Visconde Sebastian de Valmont played by the English actor Rupert Everett, who became famous as an actor previously with a supporting performance in the comedy "The wedding of my best friend (1997)" by director P.J. Hogan. Everett played well the role of another depraved, who boasted of his personal beauty. It is not a purpose to describe the plot of the miniserial, but especially emphasize that the performances of their actresses and actors were all well done, to the extreme that it seems that they are the same characters in the novel. The interest in following the novel increases with its development.