Cruel Intentions

 Les liaisons dangereuses is a French epistolary novel published soon before the French Revolution. Although it has been enjoying a status of classic literature in France for a very long time, the novel hasn't been published in English before the twentieth century. Christopher Hampton's play helped to popularized it and there are now many films more or less directly adapted from the story.

Dangerous Liaisons, of course, draws its inspiration from that play. The cast is brilliant and the story perfectly rendered. The audio commentary on the Blu-ray from the director and screenwriter gives the impression that little change was made during filming and post production and there are no missing scenes to find on the disc either.

A rare deleted scene from Dangerous Liaisons

Look for Mildred Natwick as Madame de Rosemonde in her last role. Apparently overwhelmed at the idea of meeting one of the stars of Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry, Stephen Frears and Christopher Hampton forgot to offer her the part and had to run after her to do so when the meeting was over.

At the same period, Milos Forman developed his version of the novel focusing on Colin Firth's character as the title suggests: Valmont. The film has many qualities and although less popular than Frears's version, I very much advise it. It seems a scene from the version I own is missing from Region 1 DVDs an hour and 45 minutes into the film: Valmont wants to offer flowers to her lover and finds that her husband came back home.

Some filmmakers attempted to modernize the story. I must say these are usually the most dated versions. The French film Dangerous Love Affairs from 1959 starring Jeanne Moreau and Gérard Philipe was among them. With a jazzy score and a nouvelle vague style, it is very much set in the 1960s.

A more recent French version stars Catherine Deneuve and Rupert Everett.

The version I wish to discuss more particularly is also a modernized version called Cruel Intentions (Originally Cruel Inventions). I was very surprised how good the film actually was. Transforming French 18th century nobility into 1999 New York over-spoiled college brats is not exactly a move that I would usually like. But it turns out that clever casting and a surprisingly good script made this film quite enjoyable.

The film reunites Buffy the Vampire Slayer Sarah Michelle Gellar and hunk Ryan Phillippe from I know what you did last summer. Gellar got her original hair color back for that part to enhance the contrast with co-star Reese Witherspoon.

The reason I want to focus on this version is not necessarily because it is my favorite (it isn't) but because, unlike Frears's version which obviously inspired this one, the result was apparently not achieved as easily and directly as Dangerous Liaisons. The Blu-ray is perfect proof : there are many deleted scenes included in the extra section.

As a matter of fact, many scenes seem to have been cut partly because there were too obviously drawn from Dangerous Liaisons. The "war is declared" scene is a good example. Other scenes were cut or altered to tone down the sex and make Sebastian's character more sympathetic (two prostitutes from a scene where he is on the phone with Annette were cut and he dies wanting to save Annette when he originally was just crossing the road). Speaking of toning down the sex, in the pool scene, Sebastian asks Annette to turn around so he can put on his swimsuit. You'd assume that means he has it on throughout the scene. Look at this outtake and find out otherwise :

The death scene was replaced after a preview which also caused a very important part of the film to change : the score. John Ottman's original soundtrack is now partly available on CD (check out what he has to say on his website) but it was completely replaced in the film by Edward Shearmur's. Ironically, his score has never been issued on CD and the popular soundtrack album only contains the pop songs heard in the film.

In this final scene from the workprint, you will see the difference in editing and you can hear John Ottman's original score.

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That's all for today folks!