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Liasions Dangereuses is based on an obscure novel of sexual intrigue amongst
the upper class in the decade preceding the French Revolution. Although
it is a morbid, chilling tale of debauchery and deceit, playwright Christopher
Hampton manages to make his adaptation a cold-blooded comedy.
When Chonderlos de Laclos published his epistolary novel in 1782 it caused a scandal. The book was officially banned by decree of the Royal Court in 1824. Needless to say it was a smashing success. In 1959, a thirteen-year-old Christopher Hampton snuck into an adult movie theatre to see Roger Vadim's adaptation of the novel. The film was forgettable but not to Hampton for whom it became an obsession. Hampton revisited the novel when he was a scholar of French and German at Oxford. He read and reread the novel even convincing his professors that he should do a project on why pre-Revolutionary French authors wrote such sexually charged novels. It wasn't until the early 1980's that Hampton finally tackled the novel, working from the French, adapting it into an award winning play and later film. The play centers on two ruthless protagonists - the Vicompte de
Valmont and the Marquisse de Merteuil who set out to work their revenge,
to debauch, and to use love as a deadly weapon. They wage their campaigns
in 18th century boudoirs and drawing rooms, preying on the vulnerability
of innocent victims while struggling for amoral supremacy. The game
is serious and extremely competitive. The rules are articulated by Merteuil,
"Win or Die." Fran Gebhard |