Plot: Eighteenth century France. Former lovers, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, who are among the Paris aristocracy, take pleasure in their games of sexual manipulation. While Valmont, who is renowned as a rakish playboy, does it to prove to himself that he can have any woman he wants with love never in the equation, Merteuil does it in an effort to level the playing field between the sexes in their class, while truly enjoying the cruelty of it all. No person is immune as collateral damage in their end goals. In order to get back at Bastide, the first and only man to have ever jilted her, Merteuil wants Valmont to deflower Bastide's intended, the innocent Cécile de Volanges, Merteuil's niece who spent her teenaged years in a convent and whose mother has just released her in order for her to enter into womanhood with Bastide, about which she is unaware. Bastide would only find out about Cécile not being a virgin on their wedding night. Merteuil offers herself sexually to Valmont as a reward. Valmont, however, declines as it would be too unchallenging a task, and as he has his eyes set on another conquest, namely Madame de Tourvel, a highly virtuous married woman who is staying temporarily with Valmont's aunt, Madame de Rosemonde, at her country château. Valmont's goal is not only to sleep with Madame de Tourvel, but to get her truly to want him. As such, Merteuil decides to enlist the unwitting help of the Chevalier Danceny, a poor music teacher, in her game, she planning to maneuver Danceny and Cécile into a relationship, which in reality could never happen due to their differing social classes. Danceny taking Cécile's virginity would be a bonus as the shame to Bastide would be greater than if Valmont did so. As Valmont's own set quest is a greater challenge, Merteuil does still offer herself to him if he succeeds in seducing Madame de Tourvel. As Merteuil and Valmont spend time with this collective group in their games of sexual manipulation, they may find that their modus operandi may be forever changed, but each for different reasons.
Alternative Plot: The Marquise de Merteuil (Glenn Close) and the Vicomte de Valmont (John Malkovich) display the petty jealousies and jaded insouciance of life in France's royal court in the 18th century, casually ruining the lives of de Merteuil's young romantic rival (Uma Thurman), the music teacher (Keanu Reeves) for whom she secretly pines and the upstanding Madame de Tourvel (Michelle Pfeiffer). But when actual romantic feelings begin to surface, their games take on a more treacherous air.
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