the_melon_helmet

I picked up a copy of Pierre Choderlos de Laclos's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses." In comparing the book to the movie, I think that the screenplay was a very good adaptation. The text is composed entirely of letters exchanged between characters and the movie relies almost entirely upon character interaction, something that is non-existent in the book. Aside from a few instances in which voiceover is employed to "reveal" the letters from the novel, the form of the work is completely altered from that of the novel. The movie is brilliant in it's "live-action" use of the letters. Where the book uses the letters in order for characters to tell about events which have transpired, the movie uses the letters to show the audience what is transpiring. One failing of the movie is that it leaves out a considerable amount of the book's content and, time-wise, re-organizes certain aspects of the plot. I guess that's the price to be paid for taking 415 pages and squeezing it into movie format. The strength of the book is Laclos's close attention to the ways in which characters use intellect to manipulate each other's actions; what is transparent to the reader is also transparent to Valmont and Merteuil who employ their powers of persuasion to set the events of the novel in motion. I have made it to page 297 and my guess is that in the next 100 pages or so, the two characters pulling the strings will end up destroyed (of course I saw the movie first so I'm totally cheating )