A somewhat deceptive film in which the current trend of the lack of sexual morality is played out in pre-revolutionary France. If you have seen Cruel Intentions then you have seen this film in a different time period. It makes sexuality into some sort of game that ends up being just about power, and virtue is the repression of our beastly instincts, according to this film. A rather cynical look at what human relationships should be about. (A curious note: it was awarded 3 academy awards in 1988.)
January 12, 2005
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Just as a note, this film was based on the 1782 French novel 'Les Liaisons dangereuses' by Pierre Choderlos de Lacios. It is a depiction of the decadence and corruption of pre-revolutionary France, not any "current trend of the lack of sexual morality." 'Cruel Intentions' is a remake/modernization of this film/play/novel.
Your analysis of the film is similarly mistaken. Sex starts out as a weapon wielded by the main characters to the destruction of others, but by the end of the film the Vicomte has learned how to love truly, and gives up his life for that love. The point is that love and human relationships are greater than the tools that the Vicomte and the Marquise had reduced them to.
Point taken. But I still think that in the end it is still a the game of love, rather than self-actualizing and self-sacrificing love, that Vicomte claims at the end of his life. And finally, these characters cannot excpae their actions which define their lives by just thinking them away, their hearts must change from the inside out (which by the way is very hard to show in the medium of film).
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