Question about Dangerous Liaisons

That's a lot of cocaine.

It's a sorry excuse for acting, dear.

r2 is an imposter. M never uses a period. She finds it demeaning.

Underplaying has never been one of dear Glenn's strong suits. And she wonders why she lost the Oscar...

I’ve actually sobbed that hard when I lost someone I loved. That scene felt very real to me.

I watched it today and at the end when Close was booed and shunned at the opera and walked out in shame I thought about Trump hopefully experiencing the same fate when he leaves office.

Don't come for Glenn's performance. She's amazing in this film.

That’s interesting, OP. I don’t know, but it looks like she’s tearing at her straps or something?

This is a clothes historian, she puts on a historical reproduction outfit from about this same era. When she puts on the corset, you can see she’s wearing sort of an undershirt underneath. That’s to protect the corset from getting dirty. Then the corset has some straps. I think that’s what Glenn Close was tearing at. Maybe they’re uncomfortable. The corset has stays and it’s stiff, but not as tight as people think from in movies. Maybe the straps are digging.

Watching the video at R80 again, at the end she tries to get up and at an earlier part, she tries to bend over and pick something up from the floor. She says it’s really hard to bend over in stays.

Maybe Glenn is pulling the straps off to make it easier to bend, since she’s throwing herself around. In a frustrated way because it’s hard to move in that stiff corset.

Women in that era often had a filmy scarf tucked inside their bodice, but it doesn’t look like Glenn has one, so I’m guessing she’s not pulling one off.

R8, not R80 ^^

Some women and men harm themselves (ripping at clothing, scratching, biting, slapping, punching...), in response to frustrated anger and or grief.

La Marquise de Merteuil "lost" not only the game she was playing against Le Vicomte de Valmont , but also there was fact Merteuil was in love with Valmot.

The twisted world and mind la Marquise created for herself would never allow her to acknowledge much less act upon those feelings. Well not at least again, for we know she and Valmot were lovers in the past. Merteuil was a woman who trained herself to be detached and always in control of all things; she couldn't let herself go and truly love and enjoy a relationship with Valmot, so she plotted and schemed to break him ( Madame de Tourvel et Mlle Cécile de Volanges).

La Marquise knew before Valmot admitted it to himself he was in love with Madame de Tourvel. As Merteuil correctly points out when she and Valmont are having their final show down, she forced him to break with Tourvel not to harm her, but *him* (Valmont).

Valmot realizing he's lost Madame de Tourvel, and that la Marquise's schemes and plots have cost him chance of happiness with the woman he loves essentially commits suicide at the duel. Valmot's "noble" death robs Merteuil of both her victory, friend and love.

I agree, R11. She's full of rage and is taking it out on herself because underneath her malice toward everyone else was self-hatred. Also, she "loved" (possessed) the Malcovich character and so couldn't believe he was dead because of her plotting. ? Those are some thoughts.

I watched this yesterday and it is brilliant.

Glenn’s swatting at her lice.

Hers... not the character’s.

Ms. Close is not reaching for bodice or whatever "straps", and clearly many of you men have not been around certain women when they are angry or furious with passionate grief. That saying "Hell hath no furore like a woman scorned" takes many forms.

Females tend to be emotional creatures, even when otherwise sane, rational and appearing totally in control. When a bit of news arrives they don't like faces are slapped, things go flying, furniture over turned, they tear at clothing, bite themselves, etc....

Ms. Close gave a truly great performance of a woman who just found out the man she loved is dead, and worse it was her actions that brought about his demise.

Obviously yes, when doing a period piece historical costumes will influence how an actor moves his or her body. Glenn Close moves in above clip pretty much way a woman would then when her torso was confined in stays. She does not bend at waist, but sinks down to ground falling onto her knees before crumpling into a weeping mess.

Because that final scene has la Marquise in pretty much a state of undress , she is able to raise her arms and move about in a way that wouldn't be possible had she been in full period dress. La Marquise in the end starts off as we find her at beginning of film, at her toilette or otherwise not dressed for public.

It was fairly common during this period for French royal and noble women when confined to the privacy of their own apartments to dress as you see La Marquise above, especially during warmer times of year. There was no air conditioning, fans, or other means of keeping cool, and getting "dressed" meant being pinned, buttoned, laced and sewn into things (at least for women). So for sake of comfort and ease many women would leave much of that off unless they were required to go out in public

Forgot link to opening....

In the book when she appears at the opera she had been disfigured by the pox and concealed her face if I recall correctly. Everyone did know who she was, but I don't remember her being booed.

R1 more cocaine than Sarah Michelle Gellar had in her rosary at the end of Cruel Intentions.

Scene should have shown la Marquise reading a letter (since she was not dressed we know news of Valmot's death was brought to her private apartments), then watching as reaction begins to unfold....

The music is sensational. How did it lose the Oscar to The Milagro Beanfield War of all films. I don't even remember that one.

R16

In book Les Liaisons Dangereuses Merteuil flees to her country estates to escape the growing scandal and infamy over Valmont's death. All of Paris now knew of her involvement thanks to those letter circulated by Danceny. Unfortunately while in the country Merteuil contract small pox, and as result of disease is left horribly disfigured. Thus robbed of her great beauty, Merteuil's face now resembles her (supposed) dark soul.

Missing from clip in OP's link is how things end for la Marquise. After having been booed out of the opera, Merteuil realizes she is finished socially; no one will be permitted to ever know her again.

Back at her dressing table la Marquise removes the layers of artifice (slap) revealing her true face....

[quote] Unfortunately while in the country Merteuil contract small pox, and as result of disease is left horribly disfigured. Thus robbed of her great beauty, Merteuil's face now resembles her (supposed) dark soul.

What a shame the film didn’t let Glenn portray that ending. Such a natural fit.

R21: what an emotional gal

R14 "Females tend to be emotional creatures, even when otherwise sane, rational and appearing totally in control. When a bit of news arrives they don't like faces are slapped, things go flying, furniture over turned, they tear at clothing, bite themselves, etc...."

Yet you seldom hear about women brutally maiming, murdering and sexually assaulting complete strangers or even family members in fits of rage. Unlike men, most women are taught to be expressive, which in turn reduces their chances of experiencing dangerous emotional outbursts.

Still so beautifully shot, so perfectly acted. She deserved that Oscar. Sorry Jodie.

John Malkovich on Dangerous Liaisons speaks to how the costumes affected body movements.

I'm tempted to say something more about G, but no... that would be cruel even though it's true.

She’s so beside herself with grief, she doesn’t even know what to do, hence her hands pulling at her body/clothes.

Wasn’t she beheaded?

"Laclos claimed that readers were supposed to see through the glamorous Marquise de Merteuil, and recognise the deep corruption of her soul. But perhaps because of its form (in letters), or perhaps because of the author's intentions, the cruel marquise is seductive and witty. Stendhal claimed to have met the original when she was a deformed old woman - she petted him and offered him pickled walnuts. "

Marie-Henri Beyle (pen name Stendhal) was born before French Revolution but died well after (1842), so if he did as claimed meet inspiration for La Marquise de Merteuil she obviously survived and wasn't beheaded during or after the revolution.

I can see why this film draws so much interest here, and this performance within it. But I remember seeing the film in college and being mostly irritated by it, the cheesy artificiality of the acting and set dressing.

All the heaving bosoms and tight close-ups feel very studied and in some ways diminish the the quality of the writing and performance. In these ways, that film is overrated, like a French Barry Lyndon, but less restrained and less admired. Maybe it will be re-evaluated in the future.

It's called "dramatic effect" OP. Something I know nothing about but admire the ability of Ms. Close to make it, 'real'.

There's also incredible self-hatred in her hitting herself and then rubbing the makeup off her face with increasing viciousness. She did this, she killed her love and she fully realized her guilt. It's a self-flagellation and self-erasing. A symbolic suicide.

The problem for me is that nowhere in the film does the Marquise give any indication that she is remotely capable of love, or even interested in love. So that over-the-top scene where she's flinging herself around the room rings false.

R34, then you haven't been watching carefully. The indications are there, only subtle, not in-your-face overexplanations for idiots.

It's called "terrible acting". What a ham. Thank God that Oscar was (*is*) mine!

My yes. I must have missed the subtle context when the Marquise says she knew her destiny was to dominate the opposite sex.

I liked Miloš Forman's "Valmont" much more than "Dangerous Liaisons".

I am a big fan of both Colin Firth and Annette Bening.

I liked the film but far prefer the RSC onstage partnership of Alan Rickman and the glorious Lindsay Duncan - receiving a well deserved Olivier award for her icily malevolent performance.

Again it is because of la Marquise being so cold, cruel and emotionally detached that her visceral violent reaction to Valmont's death is shocking.

Given her portrayal during much of film one would expect Merteuil to shrug off the sad bit of news; but that she goes into a white hot rage of grief and anger revels her true feelings for le Vicomte. People do not become prostrate with grief over demise of persons they didn't care about, and or feel some sort of remorse/guilt about some part in their demise.

Glenn did better in her follow-up film, "Immediate Family" (1989). LMAO!

I liked Immediate Family.

"How do you keep a marriage going?"

"Only one of us is allowed to be crazy at a time."

The M jokes are so fucking lame.

R43, FU...and G.

[quote]R31 I remember seeing the film in college and being mostly irritated by it

John Malkovich is amazingly UNsexy in this, as well as “Portrait of a Lady”. He really brings both movies down for me. It’s just bad casting, though he was a heralded actor at the time.

Malkovich was also awful and miscast in "Eleni" (1985), which I just watched on YT.

^ But Kate Nelligan was brilliant.

Women seemed to respond to Malkovitch when he was young. I remember being in a video store and two women were talking about how sexy he is. (or was)

"The problem for me is that nowhere in the film does the Marquise give any indication that she is remotely capable of love, or even interested in love."

There's the scene where Valmont is talking about how wonderful sex with Mme. Tourvel was, and the Marquise turns her face away from him (and towards the camera) and we see her shock and horror when she realizes that he loves another woman... and that she loves him herself. Damn, Close was good!

And at the end, it wasn't just grief and guilt, it's self-hatred because she brought her ruin on herself... and OVERWHELMING RAGE because she realizes that Valmont won their duel after all - and he's dead so there's nobody to take her rage out on but herself.. It really is an amazing ending, love becoming so twisted that it drives two people who belong together to completely destroy each other.

Movie Trivia: Madonna wore one of Glenn Close's gowns when she performed Vogue at the 1990 MTV Music Awards.

I read Laclos in French for a course at my chic Ivy university because I was a fancy boy like that. I read it on spring break were I joined my Québécois lover, who was a successful model, as guests of an ancient Bernard Voisin at Château de Chenonceau. It was rainy and dark and we froze our tits off and stayed in bed. Two weeks later we both had scabies and crabs - I don't know who infected whom, and that lover never spoke to me again. I was RUINED, but OK, not really, it was the 1990 so thank god it wasn't AIDS, just critters and a broken heart.

Just imagine how stinky those Imperial Frenchies were back then. Peeuew! 100 yard crotch alert for sure.

R52

And how....

It was PRICKLY HEAT that made her do it.

Love the booing at the opera scene.

Rending of hair and clothes. It's a staple in older literature...dating back to the Bible.