adapting les laisons dangereuses to the screen. cruel intentions

7/31/2019 Adapting Les Laisons Dangereuses to the Screen. Cruel Intentions

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When Pop Culture Meets High Literature. The case of Cruel Intentions and the epistolary

novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Volume 9, Issue 4 (April 30, 2005)

1686 words

By Betty Kaklamanidou

http://www.offscreen.com/biblio/essays/cruel_intentions/

In 1782, just 7 years before the French Revolution, Choderlos de Laclos, an ambitious but quite

unlucky military man, wrote what became the greatest epistolary novel of the 18th century. Les

Liaisons Dangereuses[1] shocked the entire society of its time and is still a shining example of

debauchery and decadence. In 1999 its fourth cinematic adaptation was released, Cruel

Intentions, directed by Roger Kumble [2]. Kumbles directorial debut was considered as just

another teen-flick for most, but a closer look reveals otherwise.

Narrative: the tool for a fruitful approach to the adaptation process

What cinema and literature share is above all the capacity to narrate stories. Both semiotic

systems are langues[3]. What better way of comparing them, then, than using the narrative as

the basis? The science of narratology offers the theory, as well as the methodological tools, which

allow the theorist to make the barren issue offidelityto the literary source disappear once and for

all, when confronted with a novel to film adaptation. In his famous article Introduction lanalyse

structurale des rcits, (1966) Roland Barthes distinguishes a set of two categories of narrative

functions, which can be either easily transferred on the screen or pose a certain degree of

difficulty. He names the first category Functions and the second Indices. The first category

includes the sub-categories ofcardinal functions and catalysts. The cardinal functions refer to

significant events that are directly involved in the development of the plot, whereas the catalysts

denote secondary events whose role, as Brian McFarlane states (1996: 14), is to root the cardinal

functions in a particular kind of reality, to enrich the texture of those functions. As the above

mentioned functions do not depend on language, they are directly transferable from one medium

to the other (McFarlane 1996: 14). The category ofIndices includes the indices proper(to use the

McFarlane translation) and the informants. The indices proper relate to concepts such as

character and atmosphere and are therefore more broadly open to adaptation informants include

knowledge such as names, ages, and professions of characters, certain details of the physical

setting and share the authentication and individuating functions performed in other respects by

catalysts [McFarlane 1996: 14-15]. The tools proposed by Barthes will be used in the comparative

analysis that follows as they aid the understanding of the adaptation process.

Main Structural Differences between Cruel Intentions and the novel

In accordance with Geoffrey Wagners breakdown, Cruel Intentions belongs to the category of

adaptation called commentary (1975: 222)[4]. Kumble modernised Laclos epistolary novel by

setting it in the midst of the upper class of Manhattan at the end of the 20th century. Although

Kumbles directorial debut is based on a 18th century novel, it constitutes a personal commentary
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on human relationships at the end of the second millennium, as well as on the dark side that is

hidden within each one of us.

Changes inInformants

There are numerous changes in some of the characters names (informants). These changes from

the original French names are understandable since it is an American production. A more

substantial change is setting Cruel Intentions in modern times. A consequence of this is that the

nobility titles are eliminated, even though the protagonists belong to the upper social classes.

The main protagonists are still Valmont and Merteuil, with the following differences in informants.

Le Vicomte de Valmont becomes Sebastian Valmont (Ryan Philippe ) and La Marquise de Merteuil

becomes Kathryn Merteuil (Sarah Michelle Gellar). The two youth are about to enter their senior

high school year and they are not former lovers but step brother and sister living in an antique-

filled mansion resembling a French chateau. Sebastian retains the qualities of the novels Valmont.

He is handsome, ruthless, immoral and a womanizer, a modern dandy with an appallingreputation. Kathryn is an impudent young lady who manages to retain an impeccable social

faade, just as the novels Marquise. The case of the post-modern Prsidente de Tourvel is quite

remarkable. In the film she is Annette Hardgrove (Reese Witherspoon), a 17-year-old young

woman who does not believe in pre-marital sex and publishes articles with her views in teen

magazines. One of these articles, entitled Why I plan to Wait, catches Sebastians attention and

makes him decide to seduce her. An added bonus to her unquestionable virtue is the fact that

Annette is also the daughter of Sebastian and Kathryns new headmaster and his victory would

ensure him the notoriety he desires.

Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Gellar

Cecile Caldwell (Selma Blair ), and not de Volanges, is a new girl in school and Kathryn is

responsible for her orientation. The secondary characters are carefully chosen with an eye toward

political correctness. For example, Kumble transforms Danceny into Ceciles African-American

music teacher; Madame de Volanges, the close friend of Tourvel, into Greg, a gay football player;

and Azolan (Valmonts faithful servant) into Blaine, the gay classmate who deals drugs and knows


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what skeletons hide in anyones closet, information that can be revealed at the right price. Much to

the readers surprise, the ages of Kumbles heroes and heroines are much closer to the original

than those in Frears or Vadims adaptations, since Laclos Merteuil and Valmont are in their early

twenties, and Cecile is 15 and Danceny 17. Therefore, we could note that Kumble only changed

some names and occupations simply to fit his 20th century setting as well as a different continent.

The above-mentioned changes mark a change in the indices, that is in the atmosphere of the

narration, as well as the psychological information about the characters, which clearly reflect the

transposition of the plot to a new century and a new continent, something which fashions new

customs, new beliefs and even new ways of conduct.

Changes in Cardinal Functions and Catalysts

Cruel Intentions follows the narrative programs of the main heroes (Merteuil and Valmont) and the

differences in catalysts and cardinal functions have to do mainly with the ending.

Firstly, the duel between the Vicomte and Danceny is a catalyst in the novel that leads to a maincardinal function, the death of Valmont. Sebastian still dies in the film but his death occurs as a

result of a freak accident after a fight on the streets of New York and not as the outcome of a duel.

What is more, Sebastian dies while trying to save Annette (Tourvel). Whereas his death remains in

the film, the difference in the catalysts which lead to it offer different interpretations. To begin, the

custom of the duel has ceased to exist in modern society, making it understandable that Kumble

did not include it in his adaptation. What is interesting however is that Kumble has Sebastian die

trying to save his only true love. In the novel le Vicomte dies because his opponent was better

than him and the reader has no way of knowing his true feelings for Tourvel. Nevertheless, in the

film the spectator may exonerate Sebastian because even at the end of the story, and perhaps for

the first time in his life, he manages to perform an unselfish deed.

Another main difference in a cardinal function is that Annette does not die of pain for her love for

Valmont nor of her betrayal to God. The last scene of the movie finds her driving Sebastians

luxurious Jaguar, in possession of his precious journal where he described in detail his and

Kathryns machinations. In Cruel Intentions Annette is the only character that emerges victoriously

out of a painful experience, despite the fact that she also violated her principles when she yielded

and slept with Sebastian.

Conclusions

As far as the main themes ofLes Liaisons Dangereuses are concerned there are considerable

differences between the film and the novel. A main deviation concerns the heightened value of

materialism that reigns in the film. In the novel the wager between Merteuil and Valmont concerns

mainly le Vicomte, since if he is defeated, la Marquise does not require anything in exchange. His

mere humiliation will be her only compensation. On the contrary, in Cruel Intentions Kathryn asks

for Sebastians vintage car in case of her victory; thus underlying a materialism which makes her


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1 A short summary of the novels plot is as follows: The main protagonists are la Marquise de

Merteuil and le Vicomte de Valmont. The plot begins when Merteuil asks Valmont to deflower

fifteen-year-old Ccile de Volanges, in order to avenge her ex-lover Gercourt, Cciles future

husband. Valmont refuses at first, because he is planning to seduce la Prsidente de Tourvel, a

married lady, famous for her virtue and religious beliefs. The two heroes place a wager. If Valmont

sleeps with Tourvel and is able to deliver written proof of their lovemaking, Merteuil will then

spend a night with him. La Marquise tries to fulfill her own plan of revenge by introducing the

young Danceny to Ccile. However, when Valmont discovers that the young womans mother,

Madame de Volanges, pours scorn on his name to Tourvel he resolves to deflower Ccile for

revenge. At the same time, he truly falls in love with Tourvel, and starts a love affair. When

Merteuil refuses to honor their wager, despite Valmonts success, a war with disastrous

consequences is declared between the two. Merteuil reveals the relationship of Ccile and Valmont

to Danceny who immediately challenges le Vicomte to defend Cciles lost honor. Just before

Valmonts death in the duel, he manages to give Danceny a pack of letters (his correspondence

with Merteuil) so that the whole Parisian society know her intrigues. Danceny distributes the

letters, la Marquise is completely humiliated, gets ill and flees to Holland. Ccile gets sent back tothe convent, Tourvel dies of shame and Danceny goes to Malta.

2 The other three adaptations of Les Liaisons Dangereuses were: Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960,

dir. Roger Vadim (1959), Dangerous Liaisons, dir. Stephen Frears (1988), and Valmont, dir. Milos

Forman (1989).

3 We use the Saussurian distinction between langue and langage, the first being a social product,

part of langage and a sum of necessary conventions (rules of oral and written speech) that are

adopted by any given community to allow communication; the latter, langage, being the semiotic,

communicative system of a language ensuring communication.

4 Wagner suggests three categories of filmic adaptations:

1. Transposition, where the literary source is adapted to the screen with minimum intervention.

The so-called historic adaptations, such as David Leans Great Expectations (1946) and Stephen

FrearsDangerous Liaisons (1988).

2. Commentary, where the literary source differs from the filmic adaptation with various changes

such as different endings, transposition in time and setting of the plot, etc. In this category belong

such films as Richard Loncraines Richard III(1995), directed by Richard Loncraine, and Roger

Kumbles Cruel Intentions (1999).

3. Analogy. This category comprises films which not only have different endings or settings but

films where the spectator will have difficulty in recognizing the literary source. An example of

analogic adaptation is Peter Greenaways Prosperos Books (1991), based on Shakespeares The

Tempest.
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