Complete credited cast: | |||
Jeanne Moreau | ... | Juliette de Merteuil | |
Gérard Philipe | ... | Vicomte de Valmont | |
Annette Stroyberg | ... | Marianne Tourvel (as Annette Vadim) | |
![]() |
Madeleine Lambert | ... | Mme Rosemonde |
Jeanne Valérie | ... | Cécile Volanges | |
![]() |
Nicolas Vogel | ... | Jerry Court |
Boris Vian | ... | Prévan | |
Gillian Hills | ... | Une amie de Cécile | |
![]() |
Paquita Thomas | ... | Nicole |
Jean-Louis Trintignant | ... | Danceny | |
Simone Renant | ... | Mme Volanges |
Juliette Merteuil and Valmont is a sophisticated couple, always looking for fun and excitement. Both have sexual affairs with others and share their experiences with one another. But there is one rule: never fall in love. But this time Valmont falls madly in love with a girl he meets at a ski resort, Marianne. Written by Mattias Thuresson
Among all Vadim's duds,"les liaisons dangereuses " seems to have stood the test of time better than the other "works" of the director.The reason is to be found in the cast.Gérard Philipe -though largely overshadowed by John Malkovich in Frears's version -and mainly Jeanne Moreau are earnest thespians and you cannot be wrong with them.And Roger Vailland and Claude Brulé had a good idea for the conclusion:fire instead of smallpox allows us to hear Laclos's immortal line "She's wearing her soul on her face!"
Objections to this early version -to be followed by half a dozen of them- remain:that the story should have been transferred to the sixties is eminently questionable:La Merteuil was a definitely modern original character in Choderlos de Laclos's times ;in 1960,such a woman's behavior had become banal.Vadim would do worse when he would transfer Zola's "la curée" to his era.
Proof positive that all that glittered in the nouvelle vague was not gold.