DANGEROUS LIAISONS

Genre: Drama
Director: Stephen Frears
Rated: M
Released: 1988
Country: US

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Just prior to the French Revolution, a time of legendary decadence, the corseted and perfumed French aristocracy are wealthy beyond reckoning and fully dedicated to the pursuit of their own pleasure. Seasoned sexual predator Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil (Glenn Close) amuses herself by entering into an arrangement with her friend and rival, the Vicomte Sebastien de Valmont (John Malkovich): if he manages to seduce the pious and morally stalwart Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer), then the Marquise will take him as her lover, at the expense of her current lover, Le Chevalier Raphael Danceny (Keanu Reeves). What the Marquise really wants, however, is revenge: she wants Valmont to seduce and spoil the reputation of Cecile de Volanges (Uma Thurman), an innocent barely out of the convent. It is not Cecile that the Marquise hates, it's her prospective husband, who betrayed the Marquise and hurt her pride. But human emotions are not so easily directed, and soon all the different players will become entangled in ways that not even the Marquise could anticipate, with tragic results.