Dangerous Liaisons (1988)
 In
Dangerous Liaisons, the visual splendour and moral
decadence of eighteenth-century France come vividly alive. It's
sophisticated, witty, and as close to a movie masterpiece as
you're likely to find in the 1980's.
First a shocking French novel, then a torrid movie with Jeanne
Moreau, and most recently a Broadway play, it finds new life under
the ferocious, inventive, nasty, and inspired direction of Stephen
Frears.
The theme is the abuse of sexual power among the lacy, frilly,
and malicious aristocrats of 1782.
Glenn Close and John Malkovich are the vain, corrupt generals
who manipulate their conquests in the bedroom like soldiers on the
battlefield, and Michelle Pfeiffer, delicate as a rose, is the
virtuous victim of their deadly game of seduction. Of course, what
these villains don't count on is falling in love themselves, and
when they do, they orchestrate their own destruction.
 Glenn
Close plays her meanest role since Fatal Attraction and
although she does look like one of those American Revolution
paintings of George Washington, hers is a chilling portrait of
evil, cold as marble.
John Malkovich is the one jarring mistake. With his wimpy,
droning voice and clammy, snakelike body movements, he's all wrong
as a powerful and persuasive lady-killer.
Sumptuous sets, lavish costumes and lush camerawork add to the
stylish decadence until Dangerous Liaisons becomes one epic
that dazzles the eye and grips the emotions.
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