[1] It stars Glenn Close, John Malkovich, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman, Swoosie Kurtz, Mildred Natwick, Peter Capaldi and Keanu Reeves.

The film received widespread critical acclaim, with high praise for the performances by Close and Pfeiffer and the screenplay, production values, costumes and soundtrack.

To soothe her wounded pride and embarrass Bastide, she seeks to arrange the seduction and disgrace of his young virgin fiancée, Cécile de Volanges, who has only recently been presented to society after spending her formative years in the shelter of a convent.

One of the letters intercepted is from Cécile's mother and Merteuil's cousin, Madame de Volanges, warning Tourvel that Valmont is nefarious and untrustworthy.

They fall in love with coaxing from Merteuil, who knows that Danceny, as a nobleman of lesser rank, naive, young, and not particularly wealthy, can never qualify as a bona fide suitor.

Later, she attends a show at the opera but leaves after being booed by her former friends and sycophants, implying that all of Paris has learned the full range of her schemes and depredations due to Danceny's circulation of the letters.

The screenplay was based on Christopher Hampton's Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated theatrical adaptation for the Royal Shakespeare Company,[3] directed by Howard Davies and featuring Lindsay Duncan, Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson.

[8] Bening would go on to play the role of the Marquise de Merteuil in Miloš Forman's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Valmont, a year later.

[9][10][11] Thurman later revealed that she stripped for this film because she thought it was the right choice at the time despite her immense nervousness, but she hated how "voyeuristic" the final cut of the scene was and resolved not to go naked in a movie again.

The site's consensus states: "Stylish, seductive, and clever, Stephen Frears' adaptation is a wickedly entertaining exploration of sexual politics.

[15] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.[16] Pauline Kael in The New Yorker described it as "heaven – alive in a way that movies rarely are.

"[15] Roger Ebert thought the two lead roles were "played to perfection by Close and Malkovich... their arch dialogues together turn into exhausting conversational games, tennis matches of the soul.

"[18] Michelle Pfeiffer was widely acclaimed for her portrayal, despite playing, in the opinion of The Washington Post, "the least obvious and the most difficult" role.

"[20] Roger Ebert, considering the trajectory of her career, wrote that "in a year that has seen her in varied assignments such as Married to the Mob and Tequila Sunrise, the movie is more evidence of her versatility.

"[17] Variety was less impressed, stating that while the "sly actor conveys the character's snaky, premeditated Don Juanism... he lacks the devilish charm and seductiveness one senses Valmont would need to carry off all his conquests".

In 1999, the film Cruel Intentions set the same story in present-day America, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe and Reese Witherspoon.

In 2018, the TV series The Great Seducer was released as a modern-day adaptation set in Korea starring Joy (singer), Moon Ga-young, Kim Min-jae (actor, born 1996) and Woo Do-hwan.