Valmont

Sex, Lies without videotapes:

A director, who in the past focused on original subjects, now proves that the originality is found not in the subject itself, but, in the way it is presented. This is exactly what Milos Foreman does with Valmont. Just only a year after Valmont is killed off in Steven Fryer's "Dangerous Relationships" (Dangerous Liaisons), Foreman gives life once more to Valmont in the in the shape of a younger and more appealing character. The new movie is titled Valmont after the main character. Since "Dangerous Relationships:" (DL) was a movie title already used at that time period, a similar movie with the same main character had no choice but to have a different title.

Foreman says that "knowing that another film on the same subject was produced did not bother him. It is actually very healthy for the film industry to invest millions of dollars on two productions on the same subject. Foreman and Jean-Claude Carriere later decided to make a play in order to give life to the characters on stage. In "DR" they say, we don't know exactly what the characters do. We only find out later, from things that were written, about their efforts to use people. Foreman and Carriere see Valmont on stage as a game. When one talks to his audience, his purpose is to seduce, to impress, to frighten.
Foreman and Carriere stayed away from analyzing the story but opted to show the clash between idealism and cynicism, which are the result of antagonism in human nature. "We did not want to stereotype the characters as solely being one thing, good or bad. Especially not Valmont." Everybody tried to depict him as a cold person. Valmont however, is a person who sees the world getting away from him. He wants to get rid of the puppet inside him, and the only way to do so is to get rid of himself. That is why, the last half hour of the movie is concentrated on the road to his death.

Frears story is summarized as follows: Mme. M agrees to once again make love to Valmont, only if he accomplishes to win over Mme T. Along the way, Valmont rescues the young Cecile de Volange from her virginity, lives a twisted erotic relationship with Mm T and gets killed in a duel with the young Danceny, who slept with Mme. M. Throughout the play, Foreman and Carriere try to give Valmont a human dimension to the character.

In order to recreate the proper 1780's setting, Miroslav Ontricheck (photography) and Theodore Pishek (costumes) were hired as permanent staff. Candles, authentic French areas, 120 costumes for the leads 
and 1000 for the secondary roles, paintings from the era contributed to the creation of the ideal environment. 

A man of few words but very sure of himself, Milos asked for thousands of actors to audition from NY to LA to London before choosing people for the final cast. For Amadeos Milos wanted a semi famous face to play Mozart, because, he says it is not the fame of a star that helps a movie succeed specially if the role does not suit the star. He chose Colin Firth, an English actor, to play Valmont because he was enigmatic and had the ability to portray the duel role of a spoilt child and a mature adult.