VALMONT
A film review by Alan Jay
Copyright 1991 Alan Jay
Director: Milos Forman Leading Players: Colin Firth, Annette Benning UK/France 1989 Shown at the 35th London Film Festival.
Capsule: A freely adapted version of the novel LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES" this film gives a new light a feel to the version that many of us have already seen. Beautifully shot in widescreen this is an excellent entertaining adaption of the book. +3
This film has taken nearly three years to reach the UK as it was made around the same time as the Stephen Frears version with Glen Close and John Malcovitch. This version does not take the Christopher Hampton play as its staring point but goes back to the original book.
Again rather than leaving us with a highly florid language of the original Milos Forman has created a naturalistic dialogue and image of the protagonists. No longer do we see nasty evil people doing unpleasant things to each other but we see characters who show a veneer of harmless normality while they scheme.
The film look stunningly beautiful throughout and the performances are excellent. The cast is all very young and the 15-year-old virgin who is being married really does comes across as a sweet innocent. The manipulation is still there but it is less blatant to the players while the audience gets the overview of the game and can see how things start to go wrong.
Colin Firth and Annette Benning's performances are excellent. Colin Firth who was at the screening said how interesting it was to play as Milos Forman insisted that the character be very naturalistic and not give any impression of his nature through his behaviour or speech.
I would thoroughly recommend this film whether you have seen the other version or not it is a fine piece of film making.
Review by ALan Jay
-- Alan Jay - Editor Connectivity The IBM PC User Group, PO Box 360, Tel. 081-863 1191 Fax: 081-863 6095 Harrow HA1 4LQ, ENGLAND Email: alanj@ibmpcug.CO.UK Path: ..!ukc!ibmpcug!alanj .
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