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Valmont

R Released Nov 17, 1989 2h 17m Drama List
48% Tomatometer 33 Reviews 69% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
French novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", by Choderlos de Laclos. The cynical story follows the fortunes of two scheming lovers, a pair of jaded aristocrats who manipulate and toy with each other on a grand scale, drawing others into their elaborate and dangerous erotic games.

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Valmont

Valmont

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Critics Consensus

Valmont undermines the essential qualities of its main character's literary counterpart, but solid casting and Milo Forman's deft direction help mitigate those flaws.

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Critics Reviews

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Derek Malcolm Guardian You do wonder sometimes whether it is not a little too sweetly fetching for its own good. No one could have accused the Frears film of that. Aug 18, 2021 Full Review Geoff Brown Times (UK) Valmont, then, proves a mixed blessing; a sumptuous treat for the eyes, a quiet disappointment for the mind. Aug 18, 2021 Full Review Sheila Benson Los Angeles Times Colin Firth's Valmont is pleasant, a dreadful thing to say about one of literature's most magnetic seducers. Feb 9, 2015 Full Review Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) A splendidly beautiful film, yet totally useless. [Full review in Spanish] Jul 5, 2022 Full Review Philip French Observer (UK) In every way inferior to Stephen Frears's film. Aug 18, 2021 Full Review Harriet Waugh The Spectator Milos Forman's film is a mere confection in comparison to Stephen Frear's one, but in the way that confections can give real entertainment. Jul 20, 2018 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Steve D This sort of thing has been done to death. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review john m While Forman has a knack for taking this kind of tiredsome melodrama and pushing it into a more interesting place, he can only do so much here until it starts to go through its own motions and seeing rich people cheat on each other again and again just isn't satisfying enough. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Though pales in comparison with Stephen Frears' Oscars darling Dangerous Liaisons from the previous year, Milos Forman's interpretation of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos' 1782 French epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses luminesces with Annette Bening's exquisite acting craft and diabolical sexual chicanery of the source. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Speaking to Ebert around the time of its release, Milos Forman relayed a conversation the director had with his screenwriter, where the latter pointed out that "there is not one thing we have so far in the script that's in the book." Taking the Frears adaptation the year prior as more genuinely adherent to the text, what makes this iteration so much more relevant, alive, and modern---even as it dons the aesthetic style of a conventional period piece, with its slow pacing and austere long shots---is precisely the sense of continuity the film implies between the class system of 1780s and that of the 1980s (a point that only anachronistically can be afforded the French text). If the Frears version ultimately echoes the morality tale melodrama of the original novel, a story where the debauched in the end get their just desserts, then Forman's film shifts the emphasis instead to the political structures underlying social mores, a narrative not about the corruption of the innocent or the redemption of the dissolute, but something closer to a Bildungsroman where the young are instructed in the materialism and wantonness of the world, made to give up romantic idealism for social careerism. Though the pace is slower, the narrative more unwieldy, the characters a bit blurrier, and the lead performances less seductively captivating---albeit with far better turns by the supporting cast, echoing the different focus---VALMONT is the crueler film precisely because it is the colder one, less forgivably modern and so more monstrous in its unflinching presentation of class hierarchy. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Like Jack Clayton's The Great Gatsby, it should be ripped from its literary routes and therefore treated as seperate material. As a film, Milos Forman's Valmont is suspenseful, rewarding, and thoroughly entertaining. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie was sad and cruel. I was disgusted by the way two seemingly intelligent adults used children for their entertainment. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Cast & Crew

Dangerous Liaisons 94% 83% Dangerous Liaisons Article 99 43% 54% Article 99 Blaze 75% 49% Blaze Scandal 88% 61% Scandal The Little Thief 71% 72% The Little Thief Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis French novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", by Choderlos de Laclos. The cynical story follows the fortunes of two scheming lovers, a pair of jaded aristocrats who manipulate and toy with each other on a grand scale, drawing others into their elaborate and dangerous erotic games.
Director
Milos Forman
Producer
Paul Rassam, Michael Hausman
Distributor
Orion Pictures
Production Co
Tobis Filmkunst, LW Editora, Constantin Film, Transmundo Films, Condor Vídeo, Madman Entertainment, Concord Films, Transmundo Home Video, Orion Home Video, Concorde Home Entertainment, AMLF, Herald Film Company, Nea Kinisi, Image Entertainment Inc., Orion Pictures
Rating
R
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 17, 1989, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$572.9K
Runtime
2h 17m
Sound Mix
Surround
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