18th century blog

Oh the book is incredible, one of the best French novels of all times in my opinion. Do read it soon!

Oh my. Glenn Close looks amazingly beautiful in all of those dresses! The SETS look so well done and intricate. Can you imagine being on one of those?! You would definitely fit right in Johanna!
I have yet to see the film or read the novel, but I’ll have to be sure to add it to my Netflix list right underneath Valmont. lol. Thanks for posting the screenshots! <3

Do read the book. It’s by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. It hit Paris bookstores in the spring of 1782 and caused an uproar. The lanquage, at least in the translation I have, is surprisingly modern and the plot, told in letters, moves much faster than other 18th century novels I’ve read.

The Epistolairy Novel of Choderlos De Laclos maintains the reader in an attempt to know what will happened very anctiously, but the darkness of some personnages is so big that sometimes you make difficulty to think that the author really transcrive letters, it becomes logical to think that he invented all as in a normal novel, these times called Siècle des lumières as known people of great humanity and it’s know that cruality, indifference, disdain appeared to be out of fashion. However, this novel rests a “chef d’oeuvre” of the french litterature and it has to be read.
For the movies, I know four versions :
One of Milos Forman : “Valmont”, one of Stefen Frears “Dangerous Liaisons” wich is presented here, they are quite different, the first gives a more human face of the two protagonists that still stay horrible and the drama is less hard. To be unobjective, the second featuring Glenn Close & John Malkovich, actors that I love so much, is the best but the magnificence of the details is present in both.
Another film made in 1959 by Roger Vadim (who was the husband of Brigitte bardot for a short time), featuring the great actors Jeanne Moreau & Gerard Philippe, fantastically interpreted but that lacked of costumes bescause transposed in the early 20th century and finaly another one of Josée Dayan with Catherine Deneuve & Ruppert Everett that is transposed in the 20th century too, with a fine interpretation too but still a lack of costumes for the 18th century nostalgics.

Do read the book, it’s marvellous and incredibly well written, especially if you consider that Laclos was in fact a professional soldier and not a novelist..! The characters are so round and darkly fascinating..!I love the movie too..

I have seen one of the jackets in real life.. A blue velvet jacket I think, worn by John Malcovitch in the movie. I remeber that the embroideries were amazing, but the buttons dissapointing. Simply shining plastic pieces (paljetter) glued to them.. I guess that it looked good on the screen (i have not seen the movie), because the rest of the suit was beautiful…

Takk for en slik vakker blogg:)