FREE ESSAY ON A DANGEROUS GAME OF LOVE

A DANGEROUS GAME OF LOVE

Would you like to play a game? This game involves passion, deceit, lies, and love. I
viewed two movies that share the same painful theme; Cruel Intentions and Dangerous
Liaisons. They both bring to life a set of characters that play with emotions like they
are nothing but a mere child's game.
I chose to introduce you to the infamous Viconte Valmont and the spoiled Sebastian
Valmont. Not only are their names similar, but so were their motives. I liked Sebastian
more because of his clench on reality. He portrayed a villain well, but at the same time
proved that he too could have feelings. Viconte had feelings also, but it was much harder
for him to reveal it. I felt a constant coldness through the movie in each instant he
spoke, stared, or moved. And by the time he did show compassion - it was already to late
for love.
To bring you into Viconte's world, you must place yourself in early Baroque France.
Affluence is everything, and discreteness is a virtue. The beautiful and vixenous Marquis
De Merteuil and promiscuous Viconte Valmont are a fiery duo. The Marquis has requested
the assistance of Viconte in what she describes as a heroic undertaking. More clearly
stated: revenge on her former husband who ran off with Viconte's mistress. The idea is to
destroy and ruin Cecile, the ex-husband's virginal bride- to -be. Unfortunately for the
Marquis, Viconte has another challenge to conquer. He set his sight on the virtuous Madam
de Tourvel. Viconte intends to make the lovely lady fall in love with him. Despite his
refusal of her request, Viconte persuades the Marquis to promise him a reward (a sexual
favor) if he accomplishes his self-appointed task. In the meantime, the Marquis drags in
a poor music teacher Dawsoni to achieve her desires. Eventually for purposes of revenge,
Viconte assists the Marquis in her venture. This leads to Madam de Tourvel falling in
love with Viconte, as he desperately falls in love with her. Their love is tormented by
the fact he is ashamed of actually loving, and all of his skeletons come out to haunt
him. Viconte brings down the Marquis, but fights Dawsoni because of Cecil's honor. He
purposely lets Dawsoni kill him, in order to tell the sick and dying Madam de Tourvel
that he'd rather die than to not have her love. The message is all but too late, as Madam
de Tourvel also dies; and the Marquis is left with nothing.
In Cruel Intentions, the theme and plot are one of the same. Deceit, love, and lies all
play a major role. A affluent, handsome young man Sebastian Valmont and his conniving
step sister Katherine have wanted one another for a long time, but for some reason they
have not closed on their lust. Katherine needs Sebastian's help in ruining a silly twit
Cecil; because she is going after Katherine's ex-boyfriend. Sebastian refuses the
challenge, saying it was too easy. Bored with all of the (as Sebastian calls them)
Manhattan debutantes he sets his sights on Annette Hardgrove, the new head masters
daughter at Sebastian and Katherine's school. Full of jealousy Katherine proposes a bet
to Sebastian, that if he scores with Annette than she will agree to have sex with him. If
Sebastian loses, and does not conquer Annette than Katherine gets Sebastian's cute little
sports car. At first it seems that Sebastian has no chance, but through a series of lies
and manipulations, he softens Annette's reserve. Meanwhile, to aid to Katherine's initial
cause, she hooks Cecil up with a black music teacher named Ronald. He becomes involved in
their messed up triangle. Sebastian is overcome by Annette and actually falls in love,
writing everything in his life in his journal. For selfish reasons, Sebastian eventually
does sleep with Cecil, causing the final conflict. Katherine never set out to actually
win Sebastian, she just wanted to see his conquest to fight love away. When he breaks
things off with Annette, Katherine laughs in his face and shuns him away. He retaliates
by giving his precious journal to Annette, revealing everything about him and Katherine
to her. When Annette seeks Sebastian to reconcile, Ronald has already found him to
confront him about Cecil. They begin to fight as Annette comes about. She tries to break
them up, and in the scuffle she is pushed in front of a car. Sebastian saves her and dies
in the process. Students congregating outside to read a published version of Sebastian's
journal, titled Cruel Intentions interrupt the funeral. Katherine is left with nothing
but her tears.
Now that both of the movies are fresh in mind, I'd like to bring Sebastian and Viconte to
life. To me they were the entire basis of each movie. They were very much alike, but for
few differences. For instance, Sebastian Valmont, could he be a descendant of the Viconte
Valmont? The names have remained the same, with a new sort of seductive name like
Sebastian. In one part of the film, Annette comments to Sebastian's aunt how beautiful
her house is. The Aunt replies thank you, it's been in my family for over a hundred
years. I know that Dangerous Liaisons was set in Baroque France, but could this have been
implying that Viconte and Sebastian are related somehow? It's a tricky point to look at.

Sebastian's cause to win over Annette was the same as Viconte's. They both set out for
the virtuous beautiful woman, with whom they knew they would have a challenge. Neither
Sebastian nor Viconte ever imagined that they would fall so deep in love. Viconte's love
letters to Madam de Tourvel did not seem to play as big of role as Sebastian's journal
did though. I did not understand how important the letters were in Dangerous Liaisons
even though they were brought up a lot. Sebastian's journal was almost the entire spin
off of the movie, being that it was titled Cruel Intentions (the published journal). 
Sebastian showed many emotions through the movie. He cheated, lied, manipulated and
loved. Viconte seemed to only lie, cheat, manipulate, and deceive. He seemed unemotional
and cold. When Sebastian broke up with Annette, he shed a tear, and was shaking
uncontrollably. When Viconte broke things off with Madam de Tourvel, he seemed shaken,
but still unemotional. Not until the end of the movie could I really tell that Viconte
was very much in love with Madam de Tourvel, being that he intentionally let himself be
killed for her. His demise was sad yet purposeful, given that he lived up to his word
that he could not live without her love. Sebastian's death was sad and made me feel bad
for Annette. Instead of Annette dying also like Madam de Tourvel did, she had to endure
his death and grieve the loss of her first true love alone. Both Sebastian and Viconte
died for the same reason; they fell victim to a love they were ashamed of. 
These movies are very well done, and I enjoyed both of them. They were realistic enough,
and gave the impression of each time setting very well. I enjoyed Sebastian's character
more than Viconte because of the fact that he shed more emotion on the roll. One could
actually see the transition from the snake Sebastian to the Sebastian that fell in love
with Annette. With Viconte, I could barely tell that he was really in love with Madam de
Tourvel until the end where he declares his endless love when he dies. I felt that
Annette and Sebastian were truly in love and not just having sex like I felt that Viconte
and Madam de Tourvel were. So I have to ask one last question, do you still want to play
a game?