Valmont

The film is rapturously beautiful, enticing us into a lush, aristocratic world. Merteuil can't trust the feckless Valmont to return her love, so she withholds it. Despite his cruelties, Firth's Valmont is a childlike, even childish, romantic. ... Full Review

Forman's "Valmont" (opening Friday in Chicago at the 900 N. Michigan) is a much different film from Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons," which was nominated as one of last year's best pictures.....***½ By Roger Ebert Nov 12, 1989 It was a director's nightmare.....her episode with Valmont was more pleasant than tragic.....a cynical story in which evil and compromise emerge victorious over purity and idealism.....In writing their original screenplay, Forman and Carriere almost studiously distanced themselves from th ... Full Review

Forman's " Valmont " (opening Friday in Chicago at the 900 N. Michigan) is a much different film from Frears' " Dangerous Liaisons ," which was nominated as one of last year's best pictures.....It was a director's nightmare.....her episode with Valmont was more pleasant than tragic.....a cynical story in which evil and compromise emerge victorious over purity and idealism.....In writing their original screenplay, Forman and Carriere almost studiously distanced themselves from the modern London and New York ... Full Review

The film has no edge, no spunk - Stephen Frears' version years earlier (with the unholy alliance of Glenn Close and John Malkovich), despite dealing with older actors and jiggling the plot slightly, was so much more cutting and sleazy. Overlong costume drama (heavy on the fabric, light on everything else) based on that oft-filmed French novel Dangerous Liaisons about the sexual mores of the 1800s French society, how they were broken, and what the consequences were for "unacceptable" behavior. ... Full Review