VALMONT was, as of 2026, the fourth of eight cine-versions of the 1782 novel “Les Liaisons dangereuses” by Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos de Laclos, 400 pages of sexual and emotional skulduggery that offended aristocrats (and likely amused some, too). It’s been adapted for stage, opera, ballet, radio and television. Directed on a sumptuous scale by Miloš Forman, five years after his hugely successful period bio Amadeus, the 137-minute vivisection of moral decay had timing working against acceptance when it came out in 1989: the year before the story had shown up to great acclaim as Dangerous Liaisons. *

France, during the reign of King Louis XVI. While conditions for the vast majority of the populace hover between dire and miserable, the upper class has it made, with indulgence the accepted norm. Some are so bored with pampered excess that they bemuse themselves by idly wrecking the lives of others. Wealthy widow ‘Marquise de Merteuil’ (Annette Bening) bakes a malicious scheme to ruin things for her hypocritical lover ‘Gercourt’ (Jeffrey Jones), who intends to marry ‘Cécile de Volanges’ (Fairuza Balk), a naive teen. By way of a bet, Merteuil enlists her former playmate, ‘Vicomte de Valmont'(Colin Firth) to seduce the guileless Cécile. A notorious libertine, Valmont plays along, but there are complications: the sweet girl is besotted by her equally innocent teenage music teacher ‘Raphael Danceny’ (Henry Thomas) and Valmont has his own side designs on ‘Madame de Tourvel’ (Meg Tilly),a gentle, dreamy sort who insists she is happy in her arranged marriage to a much older and considerably duller man. Decency, kindness and sincerity look to stand little chance against the tactics and cruelty of some of the shrewdest swine in the realm. History proves that the obscenely rich, powerful and depraved won’t stop hurting everyone (and everything) else until they face a prison cell or firing squad. Better yet, a guillotine.

Looking like the $33,000,000 spent to mount it, Forman’s interpretation uses lavishness skillfully, not just in the acres of period garb (drawing an Oscar nomination for Costume Design), expansive sets and lush exterior locations but in myriad detailing of superbly arranged background hubbub from the crowds of extras and their activities—similar to the care and wit that went into the 1974 version of The Three Musketeers. But in the wake of the praise (overmuch, we venture) that rained down on Dangerous Liaisons, critical reaction was snippy, even hostile (ridiculous) and the public ignored it, a painful $1,132,000 gross (#161 in 1989) registering as a catastrophe. I recall enjoying Liaisons back in 1988, though not as much as I was apparently supposed to, and I didn’t buy John Malkovich as the swinger swain Valmont. Thirty-eight years down the Seine a re-watch is in order, but meanwhile your loyal footman lodges in the minority camp that thinks Valmont is superior.

Bening (30, her second film) is a force of smiling, self-contained destructive nature as the venomous plotter, and ruggedly rakish Firth is convincingly disarming  as the apologetically ‘honest’ seducer. He’s got the looks and smarts, charm and style the part requires. Fabia Drake is a delight as Valmont’s aunt ‘Madame de Rosemonde’, who appears to be a ditherer yet is quietly more aware than the others realize. Top honors go to the multifaceted Fairuza Balk, who would emerge as a genuine shape shifter. Just fourteen at the time (she’d feature-debuted four years earlier as ‘Dorothy’ in Return to Oz); quivering with awakened and conflicted emotions, she’s remarkably vibrant and winning as the falcon-encircled prey Cécile, fully sympathetic (if perilously dim), ultimately determined and resilient. Smart and sensitive, wickedly skewering the crass emptiness hiding under the veneer of sophistication, station and status, the beautifully performed movie is criminally underrated.

“You are confusing bets and marriages, madame. One must always honor a bet.”

With Siân Phillips (as ‘Madame de Volanges’, Cécile’s mama), Ian McNeice (fun as ‘Azolan’, Valmont’s hapless servant), Isla Blair (as a naughty Baroness), Aletta Mitchell (as ‘Victoire’, Merteuil’s merrily conspiratorial servant), T.P. McKenna, Ronald Lacey, Vincent Schiavelli and Sandrine Dumas (cute as Martine’, fluttery maid).

* Forman:  “We were in the middle of our script already when they announced their version, based on the play. Of course we immediately learned they were rushing into it very fast. With the concept I had, we all knew I couldn’t be faster. We couldn’t beat them. So, I was expecting a call from the producers saying ‘Sorry, Milos, we can’t take the risk.’ The call came. They asked me, ‘Does it really bother you that another film is going to be made?’ I said of course not. And I felt like, god, Hollywood is still crazy. That’s good.”

French kissed-off—Bening: “Valmont was being made in the wake of Dangerous Liaisons. I was up for that movie too. Valmont didn’t do well at the box office except in Finland. It was really hard for Milos, but we put our heart and soul into it and he never blamed anyone. Our shoot took forever and when I got back to America, Dangerous Liaisons was already in the theater.”

Gone in grace—Fabia Drake was 86: she passed away three months after the film came out.