As part of our series of screenings in large-screen analogue format, we are showing VALMONT (USA/France 1989), Miloš Forman’s adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’ epistolary novel “Les Liaisons dangereuses”. In pre-revolution France, widow Marquise de Merteuil (Annette Bening) seeks to get revenge on her lover Gercourt, who left her to marry her cousin, the young Cécile. A friend of the Marquise, womanizer Vicomte de Valmont (Colin Firth), is supposed to seduce Cécile in the lead-up to the wedding to expose Gercourt before the eyes of society, but Valmont refuses. His interest lies in turn with the married, virtuous Madame de Tourvel (Meg Tilly). VALMONT arrived in the shadow of the Oscar-winning success of Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons (GB/USA 1988), which was released the previous year. While Frears’ film is more based on the theatre adaptation by Christopher Hampton, Jean-Claude Carrière and Miloš Forman’s less misanthropic take on the same material hews closer to Laclos’ 1782 novel. (hjf) (2.12.)
