DIRECTOR: Milos Forman

SCREENWRITER: Jean-Claude Carriere [Taking Off, Danton, The Tin Drum, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, etc] based on De Laclos's novel "Les Liaisons Dangereuse", 1782.

PRODUCED BY: Paul Rassam & Michael Hausman

PRINCIPAL CAST: Colin Firth [Valmont], Annette Bening [Mme de Merteuil], Meg Tilly [Mme de Tourvel], Fairuza Balk [Cecile de Volanges], Sian Phillips [Mme de Volanges], Fabia Drake [Mme de Rosemonde] et al

ABOUT THE FILM: Set in 18th century France, two bored aristocrats, Vicomt de Valmont and Mme de Merteuile, amuse themselves by manipulating and controlling people - friends and enemies alike... In the end they find themselves caught in their own plotting and end up paying for their malicious designs.

Forman's Valmont was the fourth treatment of Laclos novel to appear during the late 1980s. While Forman shift the focus of action and several plot elements as well as its morality, the basics remain the same as the novel and the other adaptions. In a documentary about Forman and his work, made during the filming of Valmont, Forman says that the film should really have be called "Cecile" since it is largely a story about her, growing from child to womanhood. And sure enough - the film both opens and closes around her.

Forman's adaption is said to have a moral ambiguity compared to Frears' film Dangerous Liaisons [which opened a few months before Valmont]. Several critics noted the lack of "punishment" in Valmont. But it's typical of Forman not to go for the simple solutions, as can be seen in his Oscar-winning films One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest [1975] and Amadeus [1984]. And compared to Frears, Forman uses much younger and, at that time, lesser-known actors.

Colin's Valmont is said to be a subtle mix of self-delusion, studied callousness and youthful indifference - far from the near villain that John Malkovich portrays. Some Swedish critics found Colin's interpretation too soft, yet others prefered Forman's ambiguous film and Colin's Valmont to Malkovich diabolic performance.

MY RATING:**** Colin himself describe Valmont as "quite epic and a masterpiece". [The Forte of Firth, 1991]. He gets no arguments from me!

VIDEO: NTSC format video available. School for the Visual Arts in New York City has a copy of the film Milos Forman - Portrait which covers the making of Valmont.

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